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"WASHINGTON'S 



AGRICULTUKAL COKKESPONDENCE, 



LETTERS ON AGRICULTURE 



FROIVI HIS EXCELLENCY 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 



ARTHUR YOUNG, ESQ. RR.S. AND SIR JOHN SINCLAIR, BART., M. P. 



STATISTICAL TABLES AND REMARKS, BY THOMAS JEFFERSON, RICHARD PETERS, 

AND OTHER GENTLEMEN, ON THE ECONOMY AND MANAGEMENT 

OF FARMS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



EDITED BY 

FRANKLIN KNIGHT. 



WASHINGTON: 

PUBLISHED BY THE EDITOR. 

PiifLADELPittA : William S. Martien. 
New York: Baker &. Scbibner, and William S. Martien. 

1847. 



^ 









as 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and forty-seven, 

BY FRANKLIN KNIGHT, 

In the office of the Clerk of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania^ 

ai BZCHANGB. 
P»£ Penuepscker ' 



WHilAM S. MAKTtEN 

PBISTBB. 



TO 

THE FARMERS OE THE UNITED STATES 

THIS WORK 

EXHIBITING THE VIEWS 

OF THE 

ILLUSTRIOUS FARMER OF MOUNT VERNON 



* \ ' 

REGARDED BY HIM 



THE MOST HONOURABLE PURSUIT OF MAN 



IS RESPECTFaLLY DEDICATED 



THE EDITOR. 



CONTENTS. 



PORTRAIT OF WASHINGTON. 

PACE 

Introduction, ....>..... 9 

FRONT VIEW OF THE BIANSION AT MOUNT VERNON — PLATE. 

Washington to Wakelin Welch, Esq. Mount Vernon, 5th op August, 1786, 15 
Washington to Arthur Young, Esq. Mount Vernon, 6th op August, 17S6, . 15 
Washington to Arthur Young, Esq. Mount Vernon, 15th of November, 17S6, IS 
Washington to Arthur Young, Esq. Mount Vernon, November 1, 17S7, . 20 
Washington to Arthur Young, Esq. Mount Vernon, December 4, 1783, . 24 
Washington to Arthur Young, Esq. New York, August 15, 1789, . . 27 
Washington to Arthur Young, Esq. Philadelphia, August 15, 1791, . 28 
Washington to Arthur Young, Esq. Philadelphia, December 5, 1791, . 29 
Washington's Circular of Inquiry for Agricultural Statistics, Philadel- 
phia, August 25, 1791, ........ 33 

Statistical Returns from York, and Franklin Counties, Pennsylvania — York- 
town, September 24, 1791, ....... 34 

Statistical Returns from Montgomery, Frederick, and Washington Counties, 

Maryland — Frederick, November 10, 1791, ..... 42 

Statistical Returns from Fairfax, Prince William, Fauquier, and Loudoun 

Counties, Virginia — Hyde Park, Fairfax County, Va. Nov. 18, 1791, . 49 
Description of Lands about Charlotteville in Albemarle County, Va. . 56 
Statistics from I\Ir. Powell, President of the Agricultural Society of Phi- 
ladelphia, October 24, 1790, ....... 58 

Washington to Arthur Young, Esq. Philadelphia, June 18, 1792, . . 60 

Washington to Arthur Young, Esq., Postscript — Philadelphia, June 21, 1792, 65 

Notes by Mr. Jefferson on Mr. Young's I^etter — Economy of Farming, . 66 



8 



Communications addressed to Alexander Hamilton, 

Bucks CouNxr, Pennsylvania, 29th August, 1791, . 

Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, October 27, 1791, 

Eastern Shore, Maryland, Wye, November 11, 1791, 

Richard Peters, Belmont, near Philadelphia, 27th August, 1791, 

Farm Account, stated by Mr. Peters, .... 

Richard Peters to Washington, Belmont, June 20, 1792, 
Washington to Arthur Young, Philadelphia, October 20, 1792, 
Washington to Arthur Young, Philadelphia, December 2, 1792, 
Arthur Young's Remarks on the accounts he received of American Farming, 
Further Remarks and Criticisms of Mr. Young, Bradfield Hall, Jan. 15, 1793, 
Mr. Jefferson to Washington, Philadelphia, June 28, 1793, 
Richard Peters's Observations and Criticisms on Mr. Young's Letter of 
January 15, 1793, ........ 

Washington to Arthur Young, Philadelphia, September 1, 1793, 
Washington to Arthur Young, Philadelphia, December 12, 1793, 
Contents of Washington's Farms — MAP, . , . . 

Mount Vernon Estate, ....... 

NORTH-WEST VIEW OF THE MANSION — PLATE. 



71 
71 

75 
76 

79 
SI 
84 
88 
88 
90 
97 
102 

104 
113 
114 
123 
124 



FAC SIMILES OF WASHINGTON'S LETTERS TO SIR JOHN SINCLAIR. 

Preface by Sir John Sinclair. . . . . 

Letters — Philadelphia, October 20, 1792. Philadelphia, July 20, 1794. 

Philadelphia, July 10, 1795. Philadelphia, Feb. 20, 1796. 

Philadelphia, June 12, 1796. Philadelphia, March C, 1797. 

Mount Vernon, July 15, 1797. Mount Vernon, Nov. 6, 1797. 
Remarks on the Character of Washington, by Sir John Sinclair, 
Official Account of Washington's Illness and Death, . 
Description of the New Tomb, and Sarcophagus, .... 
VIEW OF THE TOMB — PLATE. 

TOP VIEW OF THE SARCOPHAGUS PLATE. 

Washington's Will, ........ 

Beautiful Portrait of the Character of Washington, by Geo. Canning, 



129 



173 

175 
178 



181 
195 



INTRODUCTION. 



While the great Washington lived, it was thought, that witliout his name and his 
support, no object of national importance could be safely undertaken. Nor was 
this confidence confined to matters of a public nature. In all kinds of business he 
was able, and was often called upon to give advice, even in cases where he must 
have judged, not from experience, but observation. That his opinion should 
deserve much more deference in those matters which belong to his peculiar 
sphere, no one will question. 

It is as a soldier, and as a statesman, that we are most familiar with him. On 
questions of war and politics, none in the main, appeal from his decisions. Why 
should not the peaceful tillers of the soil place as great dependence in the first 
agriculturist of his day? Agriculture was Washington's stud)- and delight. In the 
cultivated field his practice was as excellent as his tactics skilful on the field of battle, 
his maxims of husbandry as wise as his political precepts. So important did he 
consider the position of the American Farmer, both to the wealth and prosperity of 
the nation, that he himself, setting the prime example, devoted all his leisure time 
either to the culture of his farms in person, overseeing and directing all things 
with his own eye, or in conducting an extensive correspondence on the subject 
Avith some of the most experienced men in Europe. 

The <' Letters to Arthur Young and Sir John Sinclair," cannot therefore be 
too highly prized, presenting as they do the opinions of one so practical and scientific; 

3 



10 

and as coming Irom Washington, exclusively of their internal merit, are worthy of 
the highest regard of every American citizen. 

Every one who reads these letters, will perceive that the illustrious Farmer of 
Mount Vernon was not only in advance of his day in regard to the agriculture of 
this country, but in advance of the present day; for it may well be doubted whether 
any farmer in the United States now conducts his operations with such perfect 
system. He determined with mathematical certainty years before hand, just what 
rotations in his crops he would make; and laid out his plans so accurately, that 
he never found it necessary to change them, unless for the purpose of making 
some experiment. Theory and practice went hand in hand, and he proved how 
true it is in agriculture, as in every other occupation, that "science crowns her 
votaries." He regarded this as the most noble, and the most ennobling of all 
employments. 

That time is past, when to serfs and slaves alone was committed the production 
of.the fruits of the earth, and Avhen to do such work constituted man a menial. 
That falsehood, with numberless like errors, is fast vanishing away in the night of 
the dark ages^ Here at least, in this new world, the American Farmer may look up, 
and fear not glorying in his occupation. He feels himself one of a class which is a 
pillar, and an honored pillar too, of the nation. Here, under the temple of freedom, 
he may lift his embrowned hands toward heaven, and thank GOD for the blessings 
of liberty secured, toil ennobled; and for Washington, under GOD, the ensurerof all 
these privileges, and Father of his country. 

Washington was also in advance of his times in relation to the establishment of a 
National Board of Agriculture. With his far reaching mind, he conceived of the 
great advantages which must grow out of such an institution. Prompted in this, 
as he was in every thing, by the purest patriotism, he urged the subject on the 
attention of Congress from year to year; and in his last message, 5th of December, 
179G, presents it 1o tlicir consideration in the following manner;: 



11 

"It will not be doubted, that, with reference either to individual or national 
welfare, agriculture is of primary importance. In proportion as nations advance in 
population and other circumstances of maturity, this truth becomes more apparent 
and renders the cultivation of the soil more and more an object of public patronage. 
Institutions for promoting it grow up, supported by the public purse ; and to what 
object can it be dedicated with greater propriety? Among the means which have 
been employed to this end, none have been attended with greater success than the 
establishment of Boards, composed of proper characters, charged with collecting 
and diffusing information, and enabled by premiums, and small pecuniary aid, to 
encourage and assist a spirit of discovery and improvement. This species of estab- 
lishment contributes doubly to the increase of improvement, by stimulating to 
enterprise and experiment, and by drawing to a common centre, the results every 
where of individual skill and observation, and spreading them ihence over the 
whole nation. Experience, accordingly, has shown that they are very cheap in- 
struments of immense national benefits." 

In this country agriculture has been, and must ever continue to be, the chief 
pursuit of the great body of our citizens. Before no other people, perhaps, has 
Providence spread out such an extent of varied, well watered, and fertile lands, 
reaching from the cold and severe climate of Canada, to the sunny plains of Texas, 
and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean ; large portions of it, as yet, untouched 
by the implements of agricultural industry. Large and navigable rivers flow in 
various directions through these immense regions, affording a ready passage for 
the productions of the earth to our great commercial cities, where they can be 
distribxited among the various markets of the world. 

Since then all other pursuits derive their life and energy from Agriculture, and 
our inducements and advantages for the cultivation of the soil are so numerous and 
great, whatever may contribute to the skill, success and elevation of those who may 
engage in it, must be deeply interesting to all classes of our citizens, and to every 
section of the countrv. 



12 

Tlie Father of his country has left upon record, that agriculture had ever been his 
favourite pursuit. And in one of his most interesting letters to Sir John Sinclair, 
he observes, " I know of no pursuit in which more real and important service can 
be rendered to any country, than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful 
animals, and other branches of an' husbandman's cares;" — and it Ls well known that 
at all times, when not occupied by public duties, and especially after he retired from 
the service of his country, he engaged zealously in the culture and improvement of 
his own farm, and availed himself of all means and sources of information that 
might contribute to his success. He saw not only that commerce and manufactures, 
and all the varied forms of mechanical effort were sustained by agriculture ; that 
Avithout its aid and resources all other activities and operations must quickly cease ; 
but that this was the main foundation of the wealth of States, and especially that it 
must be so of our Republic ; and that, as Liebig remarks, a rational system of 
agriculture must rest on scientific principles; although, in the time of Washington 
these principles were but very imperfectly developed. Chemistry, geology, mine- 
ralogy, and botany, are all in close relation to agriculture ; and the great work of 
Liebig on the application of the first of these sciences to the discovery of the nature 
and properties of soils, vegetables and manures, and their adaptation to each other, has 
already done much, and will do far more to enlighten, advance, and reward agricul- 
tural industry. 

But agriculture is not less an art than a science; and though in this respect 
nearly as much neglected as in the latter, yet a new spirit has been excited, and 
through the publications of many intelligent Farmers, and the statements of their 
varied and valuable experiments, and the efforts and influence of agricultural 
societies, we may anticipate rapid improvements in all the methods and operations of 
husbandry. 

Let the Farmer be well informed, let him realize the importance and dignity of 
his vocation, and he will see that his interests, no less than his reputation, are 
concerned in the skilful management and application of all his materials and 



13 

instrumentalities to the end for which they are designed. His tools, cattle, fences, 
barns, and every thing pertaining to his farm, will exhibit skill, care, judgment 
and good taste ; and all the movements and adjustments indicate the presence of a 
well ordered, enlightened, and well disciplined mind. 

Among the many errors of the day, there are few greater, or more pernicious, than 
that of imagining agriculture a pursuit which may be prosecuted successfully with 
little or no education. It certainly demands an education far more A'aried and 
extensive, than that of any other profession or pursuit ; and recent discoveries seem 
to indicate that even those who have devoted to it most intensely and exclusively 
their attention, are as yet but acquainted with the rudiments of agricultural 
knowledge. It is then highly important that our youth should be educated for the 
profession of agriculture, that they should not only study the theory, but see 
practically exhibited the best systems of agriculture, and horticulture, which is 
its adorning. 

For this purpose seminaries must be established, where instruction in practical 
agriculture shall be combined with science and literature, imparting a charm to 
labor performed in demonstration of theory. 

But, perhaps, our chief reliance for immediate improvement must be upon 
societies formed in the several towns and counties throughout the Union ; upon 
the diffusion of well prepared publications, and upon the efforts of individuals, 
producing by their writings and example, a general sentiment which shall give to 
this employment that high place among the pursuits of human life, which it so 
eminently merits and demands. 

The moral effects of the peacefid and quiet pursuits of agriculture are not among 
its least recommendations. It has been in the retirement of the country, in 
communion with nature and nature's God, admonished by the influence of the 
seasons, and other causes which human wisdom could neither foresee nor control, of 

4 



14 

a constant dependence upon an overruling Providence, that the most virtuous and 
greatest minds have been formed. Thus some of the sternest and noblest patriots of 
old Rome were summoned from the Plough to the Senate, the command of armies, 
or to hold the helm of State in troublous times. So the immortal Washington was 
called by his bleeding country to command her forces in the great contest for our 
liberties. And we rest assured that Agriculture, of all the pursuits of man, connected 
with the tilings of the present life, is most free from dangerous temptations, most 
certain of a competent reward, most favourable to domestic virtue, to patriotism, and 
to piety. 

F. K. 

Washington, February 22, 1847. 



LETTERS. 



Mount Vernon, 5th of August, 1786. 
Sir, 

Arthur Young, Esq. of Bury, in Suffolk, having been so obliging as to offer 
to procure for me, implements of husbandry, seeds, &c. I have accepted his kind- 
ness with much pleasure, because he is a competent judge of the first, and will be 
careful that the latter are good of their several kinds ; a thing of much consequence, 
and which does not often happen with seeds imported into this country from 
Europe. 

I have requested him to forward these articles to your care, and draw upon you 
for the amount. Let me entreat your particular attention to them, with a request 
that the captain of the vessel on board of which they are shipped, may be solicited to 
•keep the seeds in the cabin, or out of the ship's hold, at any rate, as they never fail 
to heat and spoil when put there. 

I am Sir, 
Your most obedient humble servant, 

G. WASHINGTON. 
Wakelin Welch, Esq. 



Mount Vernon, 6th of August, 1786. 
Sir, 

I have had the honour to receive your letter of the seventh of January, from 
Bradfield-Hall, in Suffolk, and thank you for the favour of opening a correspondence, 
the advantages of which will be so much in my favour. 



16 

Agriculture has ever been amongst the most favourite amusements of my life, 
though I never possessed much skill in the art ; and nine years total inattention to 
it, has added nothing to a knowledge which is best understood from practice ; but 
with the means you have been so obliging as to furnish me, I shall return to it 
(though rather late in the day) with hope and confidence. 

The system of agriculture, if the epithet of system can be applied to it, which is 
in use in this part of the United States, is as unproductive to the practitioners as it 
is ruinous to the land-holders. Yet it is pertinaciously adhered to. To forsake it, 
to pursue a course of husbandry which is altogether different and new to the gazing 
multitude, ever averse to novelty in matters of this sort, and much attached to their 
old customs, requires resolution ; and without a good practical guide, may be dan- 
gerous ; because, of the many volumes which have been written on this subject, few 
of them are founded on experimental knowledge — are verbose, contradictory, and 
bewildering. Your Annals .shall be this guide. The plan on which they are pub- 
lished, gives them a reputation which inspires confidence ; and for the favour of 
sending them to me, I pray you to accept ray very best acknowledgments. To 
continue them, will add much to the obligation. 

To evince wdth what avidity, and with how little reserve, I embrace the polite 
and friendly offer you have made me, of supplying me with " men, cattle, tools, 
seeds, or any thing else that may add to my rural amusement," I will give you. Sir, 
the trouble of providing, and sending to the care of Wakelin Welch, Esq. of London, 
merchant, the following articles : 

Two of the simplest and best-constructed ploughs for laud which is neither very 
heavy nor sandy. To be drawn by two horses — to have spare shares and coulters — 
and a mould on which to form new irons when the old ones are worn out, or will 
require repairing. 

I shall take the liberty in this place to observe, that some years ago, from a 



17 

description, or recommendation of what was then called the Rotherham, or patent 
plough, I sent 'to England for one of them; and till it began to wear, and was 
ruined by a bungling country smith, that no plough could have done better 
work, or appeared to have gone easier with two horses; but for want of a mould, 
which I had neglected to order with the plough, it became useless after the irons 
which came in with it were much worn. 

A little of the best kind of cabbage-seeds, for field culture. 

Twenty, pounds of the best turnip-seeds, for ditto. 

Ten bushels of sainfoin-seeds. 

Eight bushels of the winter vetches. 

Two bushels of rye-grass seeds. 

Fifty pounds of hop clover-seeds. 
And, if it is decided, for much has been said for and against it, that burnet, as an 
early food, is valuable, I should be glad of a bushel of this seed also. Red clover- 
seeds are to be had on easy terms in this country, but if there are any other kinds 
of grass-seeds, not included in the above, that you may think valuable, especially 
for early feeding or cutting, you would oblige me by adding a small quantity of 
the seeds, to put me in stock. Early grasses, unless a species can be found that w-ill 
stand a hot sun, and oftentimes severe droughts in the summer months, without 
much expense of cultivation, would suit our climate best. 

You see, Sic, that without ceremony, I avail myself of your kind offer; but if you 
should find in the course of our correspondence, that I am likely to become trouble- 
some, you can easily check me. Inclosed I give you an order on Wakelin Welch, 
Esq. for the cost of such things as you may have the goodness to send mc. I do not 
at this time a.sk for any other implements of husbandry than the ploughs ; but when 
I have read your Annals (for they are but just come to hand) I may request more. In 
the meanwhile, permit me to ask what a good ploughman might be had for : annual 
wages, to be found (being a single man) in board, washing, and lodging ? The writers 
upon husbandry estimate the hire of labourers so differently in England, that it is 
not easy to discover from them, whether one of the class I am speaking of would 

5 



18 

cost eight or eigliteen pounds a year. A good ploughman at low wages, would come 
very opportunely with the ploughs here requested. 

By means of the application I made to my friend Mr. Fairfax, of Bath, and 
through the medium of Mr. Rack, a bailiff is sent to me, who, if he is acquainted 
with the best courses of cropping, will answer my purposes as a director or superin- 
tendent of my farms. He has the appearance of a plain honest farmer ; — is indus- 
trious; — and from the character given of him by a Mr. Peacy, with whom he has 
lived many years, has understanding in the management of stock, and of most 
matters for which he is employed. How far his abilities may be equal to a pretty 
extensive concern, is questionable. And what is still worse, he has come over with 
improper ideas; for instead of preparing his mind to meet a ruinous course of 
cropping, exhausted lands, and numberless inconveniencies into which we had been 
thrown by an eight years war, he seems to have expected that he was coming to 
well organized farms, and that he was to have met ploughs, harrows, and all the other 
implements of husbandry, in as high taste as the best farming counties in England 
could have exhibited them. How far his fortitude will enable him to encounter these 
disappointments, or his patience and perseverance will carry him towards the work 
of reform, remains to be decided. 

With great esteem, I have the honour to be. 

Sir, your most obedient, humble servant, 

G. WASHINGTON. 
Arthur Youisg, Esq. 



Mount Vernon, 15th of November, 17SG. 
Sir, 

The inclosed is a duplicate of the letter I had the honour of writing to you 
the 6th of August. 

The evil genius of the vessel by which it was sent, (which had detained her many 
weeks in this country, after the letters intended to go by her were ready, agreeably 



ID 

to the owner's appointment,) pursued licr to sea, and obliged tlie captain, when 
many days out, by the leaky condition in which she appeared, to return to an 
American port. The uncertainty of his conduct with respect to the letters, is the 
apology I offer for giving you the trouble of the inclosed. 

Since the date of it, I have had much satisfaction in perusing the Annals of 
Agriculture, which you did me the honor to send me. If the testimony of my 
approbation. Sir, of your disinterested conduct and perseverance, in publishing so 
useful and beneficial a work, than which nothing, in my opinion, can be more 
conducive to the welfare of your country, will add aught to the satisfaction you 
must feel from the conscious discharge of this interesting duty to it, I give it with 
equal willingness and sincerity. 

In addition to the articles which my last requested the favour of you to procure 
me, I pray you to have the goodness of forwarding what follows : 

Eight bushels of what you call velvet wheat, of which I perceive you are an 
admirer. 

Four bushels of beans, of the kind you most approve for the purposes of a farm. 

Eight bushels of the best kind of spring barley. 

Eight bushels of the best kind of oats. 

And eight bushels of sainfoin-seed. All to be in good sacks. 

My soil will come under the the description of loam, with ' a hard clay, or (if it 
had as much of the properties as the appearance might be denominated) marl, from 
eighteen inches to three feet below the surface. The heaviest soil I have, would 
hardly be called a stiff or binding clay in England ; and none of it is a blowing 
sand. The sort w^hich approaches nearest the former, is a light grey; and that to 
the latter, of a yellow red. In a word, the staple has been good ; but by use and 
abuse, it is brought into bad condition. 

I have added this information. Sir, that you may be better able to decide .on the 
kind of seed most proper for ray farm. 



20 

Permit me to ask one thing more. It is to favour me with your opinion, and a 
plan of the most complete and useful farm-yard, for farms of about five hundred acres, 
lu this I mean to comprehend the barn, and every appurtenance which ought to be 
annexed to the yard. The simplest and most economical plan would be preferred, 
provided the requisites are all included. Mr. Welch will answer your draft for the 
cost of these articles, as before. He is advised of it. 

I have the honour to be. Sir, 
Your most obedient and most humble servant, 

G. WASHINGTON. 
Arthur Young, Esq. 



Mount Vernon, November 1, 1787. 
Sir, 

Your favour of the first of February came to hand about the middle of May 
last. An absence of more than four months from home, will be the best apology I 
can make for my silence till this time. 

The grain, grass-seeds, ploughs, &c. arrived at the same time, agreeably to the 
list ; but some of the former were injured (as will always be the case) by being put 
into the hold of the vessel ; however, upon, the whole, they were in much better 
order than those things are generally found to be, when brought across the Atlantic. 

I am at a loss. Sir, how to express the sense which I have of your particular 
attention to my commissions, and the very obliging manner in which you offer me 
your services in any matters relating to agriculture, that I may have to transact in 
England. If my warmest thanks will in any measure compensate for these favours, 
I must beg you to accept of them. I shall always be exceedingly happy to hear from 
you, and shall very readily and cheerfully give you any information relative to the 
state of agriculture in this country, that I am able. 



21 

1 did mysolt' thu honour to hand the set of Amials to the Agnuulture ISociety.iu 
Philadelphia, which you sent to that body, through me. The president wrote a 
letter to you, expressive of the sense they entertained of the favour which you did 
them ; and mentioned therein, the effects of some experiments which had been made 
with plaster of Paris, as a manure : I intended to have given you an account of it 
myself, as I find the subject is touched upon in your Annals, but this letter has 
precluded the necessity of it. 

The lifth volume of the Annals, which was committed to the care of Mr. Athawes 
for me, did not come to hand till some time after I had received the sixth. 

The quantity of sainfoin which you sent me, was fully sufficient to answer my 
purpose ; I have sown part of it, but find that it comes up very thin ; which is like- 
wise the case with the winter wheat, and some other seeds which I have sown. 

I have a high opinion of beans, as a preparation for wheat, and shall enter as 
largely upon the cultivation of them next year, as the quantity of seed I can procure 
will admit. 

I am very that glad you did not engage a ploughman for me at the high wages 
whicli you mention, for I agree with you, that that single circumstance, exclusive of 
the others which you enumerate, is sufficiently objectionable. I have tried the ploughs 
which you sent me, and find that they answer the description Avhich you gave me of 
them ; this is contrary to the opinion of almost every one A\dio saw them before they 
were used ; for it was thought their great weight would be an insuperable objection 
to their being drawn by two horses. 

I am now preparing materials to build a barn precisely agreeable to your plan, 
which I lliink an excellent one. Before I undertake to give the information you 
request, respecting the arrangements of farms in this neighbourhood, &c. I must 
observe that there is, perhaps, scarcely any part of America, where farming has been 

6 



22 

legs attended to tliau in this State. The cultivation of tobacco has been almost the 
sole object with men of landed property, and consequently a regular course of crops 
have never been in view. The general custom has been, first to raise a crop of 
Indian corn, (maize) which, according to the mode of cultivaton, is a good prepara- 
tion for wheat ; then a crop of wheat ; after which the ground is respited (except 
from weeds, and every trash that can contribute to its foulness) for about eighteen 
months ; and so on, alternately, without any dressing, till the land is exhausted ; 
when it is turned out, without being sown with grass-seeds, or reeds, or any method 
taken to restore it ; and another piece is ruined in the same manner. No more cattle 
is raised than can be supported by lowland meadows, swamps, &c. and the tops and 
blades of Indian corn ; as very few persons have attended to sowing grasses, and 
connecting cattle with their crops. The Indian corn is the chief support of the 
labourers and horses. Our lands, as I mentioned in my first letter to you, were 
originally very good ; but use, and abuse, have made them quite otherwise. 

The above is the mode of cultivation which has been generally pursued here, but 
the system of husbandry which has been found so beneficial in England, and which 
must be greatly promoted by your valuable Annals, is now gaining ground. There 
are several, among which I may class myself, who are endeavouring to get into your 
regular and systematic course of cropping, as fast as the nature of the business will 
admit ; so that I hope in the course of a few years, we shall make a more respectable 
figure as farmers, than ^ve have hitherto done. 

I wall, agreeably to your desire, give you the prices of our products as nearly as 
I am able; but you will readily conceive from the foregoing account, that they 
cannot be given with any precision. Wheat, for the last four years, will average 
about 45. sterling per bushel, of eight gallons. Rye about 25. id. Oats Is. Qd. 
Beans, peas, &c. have not been sold in any quantities. Barley is not made here, 
from a prevaling opinion that the climate is not adapted to it; I however, in opposi- 
tion to prejudice, sowed about fifty bushels last spring, and found that it yielded a 
proportionate quantity with any other kind of grain which I sowed; I might add, 



23 

more. Cows may be bought at about 3/. sterling', per head. "'Cattle for the slaughter 
vary from 2ld., to 4hd. sterling, per lb., the former being the current price in sum- 
mer, the latter in the winter or spring. Sheep at 125. sterling, per head ; and wool 
at about Is. per lb. I am not able to give you the price of labour, as the land is 
cultivated here wholly by slaves, and the price of labour in the towns is fluctuating, 
and governed altogether by circumstances. 

Give me leave to repeat my tlxanks for your attention to me, and your polite offer 
to execute any business relating to husbandry, which I may have in England ; and 
to assure you that I shall not fail to apply to you for whatever I may have occasion 
for in that line. 

I am. Sir, 

With very great esteem, 

Your most obedient, humble servant, 

. G. WASHINGTON. 



P. S. I observe in the sixth volume of .your Annals, there is a plate and descrip- 
tion of Mr. Winlaw's mill, for separating the grain from the heads of corn. Its 
iitility or inutility has, undoubtedly, been reduced to a certainty before this time ; 
if it possesses all the properties and advantages mentioned in the description, and 
you can from your own knowledge, or ;?uch information as you e^itirehj rely on, 
recommend it as a useful machine, where labourers are scarce, I should be much 
obliged to you to procure one for me, to be paid for and forwarded by Mr. Welcli ; 
provided it is so simple in its construction, as to be worked by ignorant persons, 
without danger of being spoiled, for such only will manage it here ; and the price of 
it does not exceed 15/., as mentioned in the Annals, or thereabouts. 



24 

Mount Vernon, December 4, 1788. 
Sir, 

I have been favoured with the receipt of your letter dated the first day of July; 
and have to express my thanks for the three additional volumes of the Annals, 
which have also come safely to hand. 

The more I am acquainted with agricultural a;flfairs, the better I am pleased with 
them; insomuch, that I can no where find so great satisfaction as in those innocent 
and useful pursuits. In indulging these feelings, I am led to reflect how much more 
delightful to an xmdebauched mind is the task of making improvements on the earth, 
than all the vain glory which can be acquired from ravaging it, by the most uninter- 
rupted career of conquests. The design of this observation, is only to show how 
much, as a member of human society, I feel myself obliged, by your labours to 
render respectable and advantageous, an employment which is more congenial to 
the natural dispositions of mankind than any other. 

I am also much indebted to you, for the inquiries you were so kind as to make 
respecting the threshing machines. Notwithstanding I am pretty well convinced 
from your account, that the new-invented Scotch machine is of superior merit to 
Winlaw's, yet I think to wait a little longer before I procure one. In the inter- 
mediate time, I am not insensible to yoiu* obliging offers of executing this, or any 
other commission for rnc; and shall take the liberty to avail myself of them as 
occasions may require. 

I would willingly have sent you a lock of the wool of my sheep, agreeably to 
your desire, but it is all wrought into cloth, and I must therefore defer it until after 
the next shearing. You may expect it by some future conveyance. A manu- 
facturer from Leeds, who was lately here, judges it to be of about the same quality 
with the English wool in general, though there is always a great difference in the 
fineness of different parts of the same fleece. I cannot help thinking, that increasing 



^ 



and improving our breed of sheep, would be one of the most profitable speculations 
we could undertake ; especially in this part of the continent, where we have so little 
winter, that they require either no dry fodder, or next to none ; and where we are 
sufficiently distant from the frontiers, not to be troubled with wolves or other wild 
vermin, which prevent the inhabitants there from keeping flocks. Though we do not 
feed our sheep upon leaves, as you mention they do in some parts of France, yet we 
cannot want for pastures enough suitable for them. I am at a loss, therefore, to 
account for the disproportion between their value and that of black cattle ; as well as 
for our not augmenting the number. So persuaded am I of the practicability and 
advantage of it, that I have raised near two hundred lambs upon my farm this year. 
I am glad to find that you are likely to succeed in propagating the Spanish breed of 
sheep in England, and that the wool does not degenerate : for the multiplication of 
useful animals is a common blessing to mankind. I have a prospect of intro- 
ducing into this country a A^ery excellent race of animals also, by means of the 
liberality of the King of Spain. One of the jacks which he was pleased to 
present to me, (the other perished at sea,) is about fifteen hands high, his body 
and limbs very large in proportion to his height; and the mules which I have had 
from him, appear to be extremely well formed for service. I have likewise a jack 
and two jennelts from Malta, of a very good size, which the Marquis de la Fayette 
sent to me. The Spanish jack seems calculated to breed for heavy slow draught; 
and the others for the saddle, or lighter carriages. From these, altogether, I hope to 
secure a race of extraordinary goodness, which will stock the country. Their 
longevity and cheap keeping will be circumstances much in their favour. I am 
convinced from the little experiments I have made with the ordinary mules, which 
perform as much labour, with vastly less feeding than horses, that those of a superior 
quality will be the best cattle we can employ for the harness; and indeed in a few 
years, I intend to drive no other in ray carriage, having appropriated for the sole 
purpose of breeding them, upwards of twenty of my best mares. 

Since I wrote to you formerly, respecting the objection made by my labourers to 
the weight of my ploughs, I have had sufficient experience to overcome the ill- 

7 



36 

founded prejudice, and find lliem answer the purpose exceedingly well. I have 
been laying out my farm into fields of nearly the same dimensions, and assigning 
crops to each until the year 1795. The building of a brick barn has occupied much 
of my attention this summer. It is constructed according to the plan you had the 
goodness to send me; but with some additions. It is now, I believe, the largest and 
most convenient one in this country. Our seasons in this country, or at least in this 
part of it, have been so much in the two opposite extremes of dry and wet, for the 
two summers past, that many of my experiments have failed to give a satisfactory 
result, or I would have done myself the pleasure of transmitting it to you. In the 
first part of the last summer, the rains prevailed beyond what has been known in the 
memory of man ; yet the crops in most parts of the United States are good. They 
were much injured, however, in those places on my farm, where the soil is mixed 
with clay, and so stiff as to be liable to retain the moisture. I planted a large 
quantity of potatoes, of which only those that were put in as late as the end of June, 
have produced tolerable well. I am, notwithstanding, more and more convinced of 
the prodigious usefulness of this root, and that it is very little, if any thing of an 
exhauster. I have a high opinion also of carrots. The same unfavourableness of 
the season, has rendered it unimportant to give a detail of my experiments this year 
in flax, though I had sowed twenty-five bushels of the seed. In some spots it has 
yielded well; in others very indifferently, much injured by weeds and lodgits. 

As to what you suggest at the close of your letter, respecting the publication of 
extracts from my correspondence, in your Annals, I hardly know what to say. I 
certainly highly approve the judicious execution of your well-conceived project of 
throwing light on a subject, which may be more conducive than almost any other to 
the happiness of mankind. On the one hand it seems scarcely generous or proper, 
that any farmer, who receives benefit from the facts contained in such publications, 
should withhold his mite of information from the general stock. On the other hand, 
I am afraid it might be imputed to me as a piece of ostentation, if my name should 
appear in the work. And surely it would not be discreet for me to run the hazard 
of incurring' tliis imputation, imless some good might probably result to society, as 



some kind of compensation for it. Of this I am not a judge, I can only say for 
myself, that I have endeavoured, in a state of tranquil retirement, to keep myself as 
much from the eye of the world as I possibly could. I have studiously avoided, as 
much as was in my power, to give any cause for ill-natured or impertinent comments 
on my conduct: and I should be very unhappy to have anything done on my 
behalf, however distant in itself from impropriety, which should give occasion for 
one officious tongue to use my name with indelicacy. For I wish most devoutly to 
glide silently and unnoticed through the remainder of life. This is my heart-felt 
wish; and these are my undisguised feelings. After having submitted them confi- 
dentially to you, I have such a reliance upon your prudence, as to leave it with you 
to do what you think, upon a full consideration of the matter, shall be wisest and 
best. 

I am, with very great regard and esteem, Sir, 

Your most obedient and obliged humble servant, 

G. WASHINGTON. 
Arthur Young, Esq. 



New York, August 15, 1789. 
Sir, 

Recollecting that in one of your letters to me, you had requested me to send 
you a sample of the wool produced by my sheep, I directed that a fleece of a mid- 
dling size and quality should be sent to me at this place, which has been done; and 
I now transmit it to you by the British packet, directed to the care of Messrs. 
Wakelin Welch & Son, in London. 

I am. Sir, 
Your most obedient servant, 

G. WASHINGTON. 
Arthur Youno, Esq. 



28 

Philadelphia, August 15, 1791. 
Sir, 

That I may not be thought inattentive to your favour of the 25th of January, 
which came to my hands about ten days ago only, I avail myself of the first packet 
since the receipt of it, to inform you that the Annals, and Chicorium intibus, have 
got safe to my hands. A set of the former I have presented, in your name, agreeably 
to your request, to the Agricultural Society in this city. For the other set, for the 
seeds, and for the manufactured wool from the fleece I sent you, I pray you to 
accept my best thanks. 

With astonishment hardly to be conceived, I read in No. 86 of your Annals, the 
account of the taxes with which you are burthened. Had the account come from 
dubitable authority, the reality of such a tax would not only have been questioned, 
but absolutely disbelieved ; for I can assure you, Sir, that there is nothing in this 
country that has the semblance of it. I do not, however, mean to dwell on this, or 
any other part of your letter at this time : the purpose of my writing to you now, is 
to acknowledge the receipt of the things you had the goodness to send me ; and to 
assure you, that with great pleasure I will forward, in a short time, such information 
with respect to the prices of lands, stock, grain, amount of taxes, &c. &c. as will 
enable you to form a pretty accurate idea of the present state, and future prospects, 
of this country. 

In the mean-while, I believe I may confidently add, that although our agriculture, 
manufactures, and commerce, are progressing; although our taxes are light; 
although our laws are in a fair way of being administered well, and our liberties 
and properties secured on a solid basis, by the general government having acquired 
more and more consistency, strength, and respectability as it moves on ; yet that no 
material change in the prices of the above articles has taken place, except in a few 
instances of land under peculiar advantages ; nor is it probable there will be in the 
latter, whilst there is such an immense territory back of us, for the people to resort 



29 

to. Ill a word, Sir, when you come to receive full answers to your several inquiries, 
I am inclined to believe that you will not be unfavourably impressed, or think an 
establishment in the United States, ineligible to those whose views are extended 
beyond the limits of their own country. 

Having closed my correspondence with Wakelin Welch, Esq. and Son, I have to 
request that your communications to me, in future, may pass through the hands of 
Mr. Johnson, Consul for the United States in London. With best wishes, and 
sentiments of much esteem, 

I am. Sir, 
Your most obedient, and very humble servant, 

G. WASHINGTON. 
Arthur Young, Esq. 

Philadelphia, December 5, 1791. 
Sir, 

In a letter which I addressed to you on the 15th of August, acknowledging the 
receipt of your favour dated the 25th of January preceding, I promised to answer the 
queries contained in it, in detail. Accordingly I took measures for that purpose, by 
writing to some of the most intelligent farmers in the state of New York, New Jer- 
sey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia ; as you will perceive by the circular letter 
herewith enclosed : and have obtained the answers from the three last-mentioned 
States, that are thereunto annexed. I did not extend my inquiries to the northward 
of New York, nor to the southward of Virginia; because in neither extremity of the 
Union, in my opinion, is the climate, soil, or other circumstances, well adapted to the 
pursuits of a mere farmer, or congenial to the growth of the smaller grains. 

I have delayed the information I am about to give you, in expectation of receiving 
answers which have been promised me from the states of New York and New Jersey; 
but as they are not yet arrived, and a vessel is on the point of sailing for London, 

8 



30 

I shall put this packet under cover to Joshua Johnson, Esq. our Consul at that port ; 
•with a request to him, that it may be forwarded to you by a safe conveyance. The 
otliers shall follow as opportunities may present ; it being my wish to give you a 
comprehensive view of the different parts of this country : although I have no hesita- 
tion in giving it at the same time as my opinion, that if I had a new establishment to 
make in it, it would be, under the knowledge I entertain of it at present (and I have 
visited all parts, from New Hampshire to Georgia inclusively,) in one of the three 
States of which you are furnished with particular accounts. New York and New 
Jersey do not differ much in soil or climate, from the northern parts of Pennsylvania. 
Both are pleasant, and both are well improved, particularly the first. But the country 
beyond these, to the eastward (and the farther you advance that way, it is still more 
so,) is unfriendly to wheat, which is subject to a blight or mildew, and of late years, 
to a fly, which has almost discouraged the growth of it. The lands, however, in the 
New England States, are strong and productive of other crop^ are well improved, 
populously seated, and as pleasant as it can be in a country fast locked in snow 
several months in the year. 

To the southward of Virginia, the climate is not well adapted to wheat ; and less 
and less so as you penetrate the warmer latitudes ; nor is the country so thickly se1> 
tied, or well cultivated. In a word, as I have already intimated, was I to commence 
my career of life anew, I should not seek a residence north of Pennsylvania, or south 
of Virginia: nor (but this I desire may be received with great caution, for I may, 
without knowing I am so, be biassed in favour of the river on which I live,) should 
I go more than twenty-five miles from the margin of the Potomac. In less than half 
that distance, in some places, I might seat myself either in Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
or Virginia, as local circumstances might prompt me. 

Having said thus much, some of the reasons which lead to this opinion, may be 
expected in support of it. 

Potomac river, then, is the centre of the Union. It is between the extremes of heat 



31 

and cold. It is not so far to the south, as to be unfriendly to grass ; nor so lar north 
as to have the produce of the summer consumed in the length and severity of the 
winter. It waters the soil, and runs in that climate which is most congenial to Eng- 
lish grains, and most agreeable to the cultivation of them. It is the river, more than 
any other, in my oj)inion, which must, in the natural progress of things, connect by 
its inland navigation, (now nearly completed one hundred and ninety measured miles 
up to Fort Cumberland, at the expense of 50,000^. sterling, raised by private subscrip- 
tion,) the Atlantic States with the vast region which is populating, beyond all concep- 
tion, to the westward of it. It is designated by law for the seat of the empire ; and 
must from its extensive course through a rich and populous country, become in time 
the grand emporium of North America. To these reasons may be added, that the 
lands within, and surrounding the district of Columbia, are as high, as dry, and as 
healthy as any in the United States; and that those above them, in the counties of 
Berkeley, in Virginia ; Washington, in Maryland; and Franklin, in Pennsylvania, 
adjoining each other, at the distance of from sixty to one hundred miles from Colum- 
bia, are inferior in their natural state, to none in America. The general map of North 
America, which is herewith enclosed, will show the situation of this district of the 
United States ; and on Evans's map of the middle colonies, which is on a larger scale, 
I have marked the district of Columbia with double red lines; and the counties adja- 
cent to, and above it, of which particular mention has been made, with single red 
lines. The last-mentioned map shows the proximity of the Potomac, which is laid 
down from actual survey, to the western waters ; and it is worthy of observation, that 
the Shenandoah, in an extent of one hundred and fifty miles from its confluence, 
through the richest tract of land in the state of Virginia, may, as is supposed, be made 
navigable for less than 2000/. The south branch of Potomac, one hundred miles 
higher up, and, for one hundred miles of its extent, may be made navigable for a much 
less sum. And the intermediate waters on the Virginia side in that proportion, 
according to their magnitude. On the Maryland side (the river Potomac, to the head 
of the north branch, being the boundary between the two States,) the Monocacy and 
Conogecheap, are capable of improvement to a degree which will be convenient and 
beneficial to the inhabitants of that State, and to parts of Pennsylvania. 



32 

The local, or State taxes, are enumerated in the answers to the circular letter ; and 
these, from the nature of the government, will probably decrease. The taxes of the 
general government will be found in the revenue laws, which are contained in the 
volume that accompanies this letter. " The Pennsylvania Mercury, and Philadel- 
phia Price Current," are sent, that you may see what is, and has been, the prices of 
the several enumerated articles which have been bought and sold in this market at 
different periods, within the last twelve months. 

An English farmer must entertain a contemptible opinion of our husbandry, or a 
horrid idea of our lands, when he shall be informed that not more than eight or ten 
bushels of w^heat is the yield of an acre; but this low produce may be ascribed, and 
principally too, to a cause which I do not find touched by either of the gentlemen 
whose letters are sent to you, namely, that the aim of the farmers in this country, if 
they can be called farmers, is, not to make the most they can from the land, which is, 
or has been cheap, but the most of the labour, which is dear ; the consequence of 
which has been, much ground has been scratched over and none cultivated or im- 
proved as it ought to have been : whereas a farmer in England, where land is dear, 
and labour cheap, finds it his interest to improve and cultivate highly, that he may 
reap large crops from a small quantity of ground. That the last is the true, and the 
first an erroneous policy, I will readily grant; but it requires time to conquer bad 
habits, and hardly any thing short of necessity is able to accomplish it. That neces- 
sity is approaching by pretty rapid strides. 

If from these communications you shall derive information or amusement, it will 
be but a small return for the favours I have received from you; and I shall feel happy 
in having had it in my power to render them. As they result from your letter of the 
25th of January, and are intended for your private satisfaction, it is not my wish that 
they should be promulgated as coming from me. 
With very great esteem, I am, Sir, 

Your most obedient and very humljle servant, 

G. WASHINGTON. 

Arthur Young, Esq. 



33 



The following circular letter was addressed to several gentlemen, the best 
informed of the agriculture, value of lands, and the prices of produce, &c. in 
the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia; 
and the answers which have been received are thereunto subjoined. 

CIRCULAR. 

Philadelphia, August 25, 1791. 
Dear Sir, 

Some inquiries having been made of me by important characters, on the 
state of agriculture in America, comprehending its several relations, and intended 
to ascertain the value of our lands, with their yield in the several kinds of grain, 
grass, &c. the prices of farming stock ; the prices of produce, &c. together with a 
list of the taxes in the different States, which may in any way affect the farmer : as 
an object highly interesting to our country, I have determined to render the most 
just and satisfactory answers that the best information I can obtain from different 
parts of the United States will enable me to give. 

With this view, my confidence in your disposition and knowledge, leads me to 
offer to your inquiry, and to request from your intelligence, as early information as 
may be convenient, on the foUovsdng heads : 

1. The fee-simple prices of farming lands in such part of the State of 

as are neither so near to large towns as to enhance their value, nor so distant from 
market as greatly to reduce it, or to make the situation inconvenient. In your 
answer to this inquiry, be pleased to note, generally, the situations, the soil, and if 
it be practicable, the proportions of arable, pasture, and wood-land. 

2. The rents of the same lands, when leased, and generally, the terms of lease. 

3. The average product of the same lands in wheat, rye, barley, oats, buck-wheat, 
beans, pease, potatoes, turnips, grasses, hemp, flax, &c. in the common mode of 
husbandry now practised. 

9 



34 

4. The average prices of these articles, when sold at the fq^m, or carried to the 
nearest market. 

5. The average prices of good working horses, working oxen, milk cows, sheep, 
hogs, poultry, &c. 

6. The average price of beef, veal, mutton, pork, butter, and cheese, in the neigh- 
bourhood, or at the nearest market towns. 

7. The price of wrought iron, whence the price of farming utensils may be 
inferred. 

8. A list of the taxes laid in the State of 

The tendency of this inquiry, will be my apology for the trouble it may give to 
you. 

I am. Dear Sir, with great regard. 

Your most obedient servant, 

G. WASHINGTON. 



ANSVvTERS TO TKE PEECEDING LETTER. 

York Town, Pennsylvania, Sept. 24, 1791. 
Sir, 

I considered myself as highly honoured by your favour of the 25th ult., and 
have taken all the pains in my power to give you the satisfaction you wdsh for. 
Being -soon obliged to leave home for several weeks, I am somewhat pressed in 
time, but thought proper to write you the result of my inquiries and observations at 
this period, as I am sure you will be ready to make allowance for time, and other 
circumstances. 

I cannot boast of elegance of style, but shall study to give you my ideas, founded 
as well upon the information I have received from others, as my own experience; 
and if any of my communications prove acceptable, or useful to you. T shall esteem 



35 

myself highly rewarded. You were pleased to du-ect my inquiries chiefly towards 
York and Franklin counties, in this State ; I have accordingly done so, and beg leave, 
in order to be better understood in my answers, to divide York county into three 
districts; and to call Franklin county the fourth district. 

First District. — York Valley, beginning at the Susquehanna, at Wright's Ferry, 
and running through York county, including York Town, McAllister's Town, (alias 
Hanover,) and Petersburg, (alias Littlestown,) to the Maryland line, near the latter 
place. In length about thirty-nine miles, in breadth from three to four miles. 

Second District. — The lands lying on the right of that valley, adjoining the same, 
and bounded by the river Susquehanna, the South Mountain, and the Maryland line. 

Third District. — The barrens of York, including the lands on the south of York 
Valley, to the Maryland line. 

Fourth District. — Franldin county. 

Answer to query the first. — The fee-simple price of farming lands in the First Dis- 
trict, may be averaged at 6/. 155. per acre, (the dollar at 75. 6d.) York Town lies 
56 miles from Baltimore, 45 from Rock-run, 55 from Christiana-bridge, and 89 miles 
from the Philadelphia market. McAllister's Town is 18 miles from York, and 45 
from Baltimore. Petersburg is seven miles from McAllister's, and 48 from Bal- 
timore. 

The soil of this valley is of the lime-stone kind, and is rather of a rich quality when 
fresh; it is generally covered with a black mould. Some spots, however, are inclined 
to gravel or slate, from the intrusion of a few small hills. The proportion of meadow 
ground to arable land, may be as one to twelve; more than one half of the arable 
land is, generally, in grass for pasture, sown every third year with red clover, or 



36 

timothy seed. The settlements have been so rapid in this district since the year 
1740, and the plantations are so close, as not to leave more than a fourth of wood. 
The farms appear nearly all accommodated with running springs. The inhabitants 
are mostly industrious and careful. They are advancing by a steady pace, and do 
not seem inclined to make many innovations upon the ancient practice of agricul- 
ture. Indeed they are already strong in property; their buildings, stock, and cat- 
tle, all show it. The timber, locust, walnut, wild-cherry, hickory, black oak, white 
oak, &c. 

In the Second District, the fee-simple price of farming land may be averaged at 
3/. and IO5. the acre. The soil is generally of a reddish colour, sometimes mixed with 
sand. We call it sandstone land through the greater part of the district. The state 
of agriculture there, is not so flourishing as in the first district, though the country is 
thickly settled, and you find plantations amongst the highest hills. The proportion of 
meadow to arable land may be somewhat greater than in the first district. The lands 
in many places naturally inclined to grass; the farmers here are not so careful of 
sowing grass-seed in their fields as those in the first district. The timber, walnut, 
black oak, white oak, poplar-chestnut, &c. 

Third District. — This district is in general badly timbered, and the soil poor, of 
the gravelly or slate kind, and of a reddish cast, often mixed with sand; notwith- 
standing these disadvantages, more than half the barrens are under cidtivation; the 
wood composed of dwarf white oak, chestnut, &c. The price per acre may be esti- 
mated at thirty-five shillings. What is a little remarkable, the inhabitants of this 
district have paid their taxes with more punctuality than most other parts of the 
State. Meadow land as to arable, may be as one to fifteen ; pasture grounds little 
attended to. Before I proceed to Franklin, I would observe that the great South 
Mountain, or Blue Ridge as it is called in Virginia, divides York from Franklin 
county, and is from seven to ten miles in breadth; a very small proportion of it can 
be cultivated. 



37 

Fourth District. — Franklin is a compact county, including Cumberland Valley, 
between the South and North Mountains for upwards of twenty-five miles, and part 
of the rich settlement of Conococheague and Antitem ; few situations in America can 
claim a superior soil, it is nearly all lime-stone land. The quantity of meadow as 
to arable land, may be counted in the same proportion as in the first district of York 
county, about one half of the improvable land is cleared. The residue abounds in 
the largest locust, walnut, hickory, and oaks. The county town is Chambersburg, 
distant eighty miles from Baltimore, ninety from Georgetown, and twenty-four miles 
from Potomac river at Williamsport. Green Castle is a handsome village, situate 
eleven miles from Chambersburg, nearer the Potomac, on the road to Williamsport, 
and seventy-five miles from Baltimore, and seventy-nine from Georgetown. In 
several of the settlements, lands bear a high price, but when I came to average for 
the county, I estimated the acre at 4^. 

Answer to query the second. — When you rent for money, you will seldom obtain 
more than four per cent, interest upon your purchase money. 

The safest and most common mode is, I believe, to lease on the shares ; where the 
lands are good, the lessor furnishes the one-half of the seed grain, and obtains from 
the tenant one-half of the produce of the grain, and implements. The grain 
delivered in the bushel, hay, &c. on the farm. By this way of leasing, we may 
have full six per cent, for the purchase money, or value of the lands. Plantations of 
inferior quality are leased on the thirds, that is, the lessor finds a third of the seed, 
or sometimes none, and obtains one-third of the produce of grain, hay, &c. 

Lands formerly were purchased, and payment was to be made by instalments, 
without interest, and the sums so moderate, that an industrious man could discharge 
them in the course of ten years ; few would lease, when they might purchase so 
cheaply. The vast quantity of back lands, induce a number to prefer actual pur- 
chase in a precarious situation, to leasing in the old settlements. However the 
descendants of the Germans are not as adventurous as some of their neighbours. 

10 



38 

They seem attached to peaceable liabitations, and make the best tenants. Real 
property with us seems to obtain a more fixed value, and cannot be had without an 
adequate price. 

Answer to query third, 



A'lELl) TO THE ACRE, CALCULATED BV THE HUSHEL. 



1st district . . . 

2d district . . . 

3d district . . . 

4th district. . . 



150 

130 

75 

150 



Beans and peas are not raised in any great quantity; but the soil is, in general, not 
unfavourable to their culture. In the first district, they chiefly propagate the blue 
grass and clover, and the same may be said of part of Franklin county. In the resi- 
due of the district they depend on timothy meadows; the former will yield one ton 
and a half to the acre, the latter two tons. The blue grass and clover have a second 
crop, which goes to about two-thirds of the first. The lucern grass, I should incline 
to think, would do well here, choosing favourable situations; but I imagine it has not 
been sufficiently regarded. Some English grasses, brought over by the first settlers, 
also suit the soil. 

Much hemp might be raised in these counties, were there proper encouragement ; 
the foreign hemp gluts the markets, and there is not a sufficient protecting duty to 
spur the farmer to raise this useful article. 



Our hemp lands would average a seven hundred weight to the acre (that is, what 
is called broken hemp); hackled flax may be calculated lOOlbs. to the acre. I have 



39 

endeavoured to average the productions, and believe I am rather under than over the 
quantity. In the fresh lands, or where they are moderately manured, we may safely 
add one-fourth more than I have set down. With European husbandry, much would, 
doubtless, be effected ; yet there are a few instances at York and Lancaster, where 
between forty and fifty bushels of wheat have been raised to the acre. Barley yields 
greatly in the fresh or manured lands ; but sufficient encouragement lias not been 
given to raise it. The market for this grain has been very fluctuating, and wheat has 
been sown in its place. I estimated potatoes, perhaps, too low, for when there is only 
a reasonable care used, we may speak of upwards of an hundred bushels to the acre ; 
but they are frequently carelessly planted, and not sufficiently attended to. I have 
known less than one acre produce upwards of four hundred bushels. 

Answer to query fourth. — The towns I have mentioned in York and Franklin 
counties, carry on considerable trade, and purchase the produce of the country ; but 
much the greater part of the wheat and flour is transported to the Baltimore market 
by the farmer. 

Upon a review of six years past (exclusive of the year 1790,) I estimate the prices 
at the towns in the counties as follows: 





YOKK COU:<TY. 




FRANKLIN COUNTY. 




per Bshl. 


per lb. 


1 Ton. 


j per Bshl. 


1 per lb. 1 Ton. ] 




s. d. 


s. d. 


£. 


S. d. 


s. d. 


£..,, 


Wheat . . 


6 


— 





5 







Rye . . 


3 6 


— 





3 6 








Barley . . 


4 


— 


— 


2 








Oals . . 


2 








2 3 








Buck-wheat 


2 6 


— 


— 


2 9 








Indian-corn 


3 


— 


— 


2 








Spcltz . . 


2 6 


— 


— 


1 10^ 








Potatoes 


2 








9 








Turnips 


1 


— 


— 


— 








Hay . . 


— 





3 








2 5 


Hackled-nax 


— 


1 








1 




Hemp . . 


— 


5 


— 


— 


5 


— 



I have estimated the prices at the county market ; you may allow a deduction 
of Ad. the bushel between the farm and the market; the diff'erence as to flax and 



40 

hemp will be very small. The expense of hauling hay depends on the distance. 
You may have a waggon and four horses for a day, in the winter, at 155. 

Answer to queries the fifth and sixth. 



YORK CO0NTY. 


FKANKLIN COUNTY. 




£. 


s.d. 


£. 


s. d. 


A working horse 


. 20 





17 


10 


Pair of working oxen 17 





15 





A milk cow 


4 


10 


4 


5 


Sheep . . . 





12 6 





10 


Hog .... 


1 


10 


1 


10 


Turkey . . . 





2 6 





2 6 


Goose .... 





2 6 





2 


Duck .... 





1 





9 


Dung-hill fowl . 





6 





6 


Pork, per lb . . 





3i 





3 


Beef .... 





3 





2 


Mutton . . . 





4 





3i 


Veal .... 





3 





2i 


Butter . . . 





8 





8 


New cheese . . 





6 





G 



Answer to query the seventh. — There is a very great iron market at York : you 
may estimate the ton of wrought iron there 28/., and iron of a similar quality will 
command the same sum at Chambersburw. 



Answer to query the eighth. — I herewith give you a list of taxes laid upon the 
county of York since the beginning of the Revolution, but they are all nearly dis- 
charged, and no new land-tax has been assessed by the State since the establishment 
of the general government. Pennsylvania has a considerable demand against the 
general government, and has a surplus revenue after paying all the debts, M'hich is 



41 

intended to be applied to the improvement of roads and navigation. No land-tax is 
expected to be levied by the State. 

N. B. The demand of Pennsylvania against the general government, is not yet 
ascertained. 



LIST OF TAXES LAID UPON YORK COUNTY BV THE COMMON- | 


WEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA 




In continental cur- 








rency, which in 17S1 








depreciated to 150 Ibr 
one in this State, and 


In State-paper 
money. 


In gold or silver. 




finally would,not cir- 








culate. 








£. s. d. 


£ S. d. 


£ s. d. 


For 1777 


12,721 4 9 






78 


20,860 3 1 






79 


324,863 1 3 






80 


1174,447 18 10 






81 




14,751 13 9 


6,152 15 6i 


82 






35,569 7 8 


83 




19,140 1 1 




84 




8,268 15 7 




85 




6,902 10 11 




86 




14,032 2 




87 




6,786 4 11 




■ 88 




6,906 1 9 




89 




6,826 2 S 





During the war, there were a few instances where some additional taxes were laid 
upon non-jurors or non-associators in the militia. A rate of sixpence in the pound 
upon personal property, wdl in general, be more than sufficient to pay the county 
tax. The road and poor-tax will not come so high. 



By the laws of the Union we pay a duty upon foreign importations, and an excise 
on wine and spirits of all kinds. He that drinks must pay. 

Franklin county may be nearly in the same condition as to taxes. From the fore- 
going statements, it must appear that this county, from climate, soil, and situation, 
is favourable to agriculture. The hand of industry, with a good system, is only 
wanting to bring it to perfection. I imagine that if our farmers were to cultivate 

11 



42 

fewer acres, and attend them well, they would succeed better; a greater regard 
should be had to collecting proper manure. 

I have given you my sentiments respecting the two counties, and shall be ready, 
during the winter, to grant any further assistance in my power. 
I am, with the greatest respect. 

Your most obedient and most humble servant. 
The President of the United States. 



Frederick, Maryland, November 10, 1791. 
Sir, 

After many endeavours for assistance, in answering your inquiry into the 
agriculture, &c. of Montgomery, Frederick, and Washington counties, I was obhged 
to rely principally upon my own observations and conjectures; for, as very few- 
measure their fields or produce, it is mere guess work, and they commonly think 
and speak the best of their own affairs. I wish my conjectures had more certain 
foundation than they have, yet I flatter myself they will mislead no body to his 
injury; they certainly are not calculated for that purpose. 

I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect. 

Your most obedient servant. 
The President. 

Montgomery County, Maryland. — The land in general, is what may be called 
with us of middling or rather inferior quality; it produces well when fresh cleared, 
but soon declines. It will sell according to quality, improvements, and the propor- 
tion left in wood, from 225. 6c?. to 5l. an acre; it has been very generally tended the 
first two years in tobacco, the third in Indian corn, and sown down in wheat. As 
common throughout the State, the tobacco is planted three feet distance each way, 
and the corn about six; so that it has become a general estimate, that four thousand 



43 

eight hundred tobacco plants, or twelve hundred corn hills, take up an acre. The 
produce of tobacco is so various, as from four to ten plants to the pound, nor is that 
of Indian corn more certain. Such land as I have dcscriljed, may be expected to 
yield for the first four crops, according to the seasons, a pound of tobacco for every six 
or seven plants planted, for some will fail. From fifteen to twenty bushels of Indian 
corn, and from nine to twelve bushels of wheat, to the acre. After this destruc- 
tive course, the land is often again planted the next year with Indian corn, and 
sown down again with wheat or rye, without any assistance. The crops accordingly 
lessen, till the land becomes so exhausted that its produce scarcely pays for the 
ploughing. If the land was well 'cleared, and a crop of wheat well put in, in the 
first instance, I have no doubt but the yield might be from twelve to twenty bushels 
an acre, and sometimes more. I judge, that from half to two-thirds of Montgomery 
county is cleared ; a good deal of it is much impoverished, or, as we call it, worn out ; 
though a great proportion of it lies well, and very little of it sandy, so that it is 
capable of improvement. This county is, in general, plentifully watered with good 
springs and small streams. Very little hay is made in it, though there might be a 
good deal of watered meadow. Georgetown, a good port for shipping, in this county, 
has for some years past, been the best market for tobacco in the State, perhaps in 
America; and the Montgomery tobacco is in high reputation. The labour of the 
people has therefore been, I may say, wholly applied in the cultivation of tobacco. 
Fresh land produces the most certain crop, the easiest tended, and the best in quality. 
Baltimore lies convenient to some, and not very distant from any part of the county. 
There and at Georgetown, the surplus wheat is disposed of; it may in a course of 
years average about 75. a bushel. 

The stocks of cattle of all kinds are neither numerous or good, so that there is little 
fiesh provision raised in this county for sale; nor is there any surplus of Indian corn, 
which is generally from 25. 3c?. to 3s. 6d. a bushel. To say with us, that great quan- 
tities of tobacco are raised in any tract of country, implies without more, that the 
land is wasted, and no surplus of any thing made in it but tobacco. Some few planta- 
1 ions are not to be included within my general description; they are very good, are 



44 

better managed, and would sell considerably higher. It may not be amiss to remark, 
that a part of the federal district lies within this county, and the federal city adjoins it. 
A great change may be expected to take place soon in the price of land, and the kind 
of cultivation. 

Frederick county, Maryland, may be considered under a division of it into three 
parts. The Catoctin, and that part of the South Mountain which lie -wdthin it, the 
immediate space between those mountains, and the land lying to the eastward of 
Monocacy Valley, and Monocacy Valley itself. The mountain land is very thin and 
stony, though generally covered with wood and timber ; there are spots, however, 
settled all through ; such, and the parts near the better land, sell from 15^. to 275. 6d. 
an acre. Amongst the second class, there are here and there plantations equal in 
quality, produce, and price, to the Monocacy Valley ; the rest may be compared 
with the Montgomery land. Monocacy Valley is about thirty-five or forty miles in 
length, and eight or ten in breadth, with the river Monocacy running through it, and 
emptying into Potomac. The land is generally in small farms of one hundred to 
two hundred and fifty acres. There is a plenty of lime-stone, and not so much as 
to be prejudicial ; tliere are many pretty good streams, and most of the proper situa- 
tions are improved by good burr mills. Indeed there has been a rage for mills, so 
that the milling is well done, and on cheap terms. In this part of the county, as 
every where else, there is great choice; very little land sells for less than 3/. or more 
than 8/. an acre ; thfe average may be said to be 6^. We are from to forty to fifty 
miles from Baltimore and Georgetown, where Avheat may average 75. a bushel; car- 
riage to those markets costs usually 31. a ton. With us, milk cows sell from 41. to 6^.; 
draught horses fit for wagon or plough, 18^. to 251; smaller horses less, and exceed- 
ing good ones more. Prices at home, of wheat, 55. 6d.; Indian corn, 25. to 35. 6^.; 
rye, 35. 6c?.; oats, 25. 3d.; barley, or more properly, bigg, 35. 6d.; buck-wheat, 25. 
Prices in the Fredricktown market, of grain, as at home; beef, 2^d. to 4d.; veal, 2d. 
to 31^.; mutton, 3id. to5d. per lb.; pork 275. 6d. to 355. per hundred; butter, I5. The 
market is not considerable, and the same prices govern one amongst another in the 
county. Hay, 5O5. to 31. a ton. 



45 

Wheat is reckoned a cash article, and therefore the chief that we cultivate for mar- 
ket; we also raise Indian corn, for consuraj)tion on the farms, seldom with a view for 
sale, and have lately increased in the consumption of it. We raise rye also, for the 
chief feed of our horses. Our management of our land is, in general, far from deserv- 
ing praise, though not so reprehensible as Montgomery. I judge the produce of land 
of 6/. an acre, may be, nearly (fresh cleared) in wheat, twenty bushels. 

In corn the same ; in rye rather more. 

Fresh cleared land, growing in corn, sowed in wheat, eighteen bushels. 

Fresh land, a crop taken in wheat, and then planted in corn, twenty bushels. 

Land not run hard, fallowed, and cropped in wheat once in three years, twenty 
bushels. 

Fallowed, and cropped in wheat once in two years, fifteen bushels. 

If manured moderately it will rise to twenty bushels. 

If pushed every other year, without manuring, it will sink to ten bushels, and even 
lower. Land in general, with the same management, yields more rye than wheat, 
with this advantage, that rye leaves it lighter than wheat, and seems not to exhaust it 
so much. Strong land, of a proper soil, and well cultivated, will yield from thirty to 
forty bushels of barley, or rather bigg, to the acre. Rich fresh bottom, yields five or 
six hundred, and highly manured land six, eight, or nine hundred pounds of hemp to 
the acre ; the cultivation of it has almost ceased. Flax is an uncertain crop. We 
break up our land in May or June, for fallow; begin to cross-plough it about the mid- 
dle of July ; harrow it across, plough in the seed, from three pecks to a bushel to the 
acre, and sometimes lightly harrow with the ploughing. We seldom plough with 
more thaii two horses, and esteem from the 10th to the 20th of September, the very 
best time for seeding; the quantity of seed near a bushel, I think I have found, and 
is generally agreed, is the best. We are not so well agreed, whether another plough- 
ing is helpful or otherwise. 

Speltz are sometimes sowed on land too wet for wheat, of which we have a little: 
the yield shelled is much alrout the same as wheat. We cultivate but few potatoes, 
or turnips, the latter is always sowed on fresh land, and never hoed ; the potatoes, too, 

12 



46 

are commonly neglected; in particular instances, they have been well managed, the 
yield has been very encouraging, some say as far as five hundred bushels to the acre; 
but one gentleman, on whom I can depend, told me he had not made less than two 
hundred any one year, for several years together. Cabbages, parsnips, carrots, peas, 
and beans, have only been raised for family consumption : they succeed very well, as 
do almost all garden plants and fruits. 

I have myself raised hops and madder : I believe they are with us of superior qua- 
lity. A brewer told me he had bought the crop of five-eighths of an acre of hops, 
which turned out twelve hundred pounds ; and several Germans, as well as one Eng- 
lishman, acquainted with madder, have told me, it is as good here in two years as in 
Europe in three. 

A small meadow is a common object Avith every farmer; it is of timothy, or natural 
grass ; the timothy is mowed but once a year, the natural grass twice : either, that 
is esteemed good, produces, in the year, from a ton and an half to two tons an acre; 
but many, from unfavourable situation or neglect, turn out much less. We also 
often have clover patches ; they are commonly cut and fed green, and seldom made 
into hay. Some few farmers, in the spring, sprinkle clover-seed on wheat, for pas- 
turage, but it is rare, though every body approves it. Apples, pears, quinces, the 
morello and common cherries, are in high perfection, and with little trouble. Peaches, 
apricots, nectarines, and cherries, of the more delicious kinds, do not thrive so well 
here as near to the bay; yet these and plums, in all situations sometimes, and in 
some situations almost every year, are very good. We have, too, the black mulberry 
in plenty ; exotic grapes thrive very well, and the native grape, of wiiich there is 
great variety, have, in some instances, been much improved by cultm'e. 

The price of bar-iron is from 28/. to 30/. a ton ; coarse iron-work from the smith 
double the price of the bar. Labourers, by the year, about 201; by the month, 
40.s\ and found every thing but clothes. Reapers and mowers, by the dav, 3.t. 
to 35. 9d. and found ; a good reaper cuts, binds, and stacks, about three-quarters 



47 

of an acre of wheat, of twenty bushels to the acre, a day ; a mower, mows about 
his acre. 

Washmgton county, Maryland, may also be divided in the same manner as Fred- 
erick. Conococheague Valley is about twenty miles in length and breadth, and has 
Conococheague and Antitem creeks running through it, and emptying in the Potomac. 
This valley has more lime-stone than Monocacy, is rather stronger, and its inhabi- 
tants say, exceeds it in produce; I believe it does. The prices of land, labour, hire, 
cattle of all kinds, as well as the kinds of produce, and manner of cultivation, is so 
much alike, that a particular enumeration would be but a repetition. It lies thirty 
or forty miles farther from the ports, and the grain is generally 6J. or 8d. lower. 
They too have a plenty of very fine mills, and their wheat is chiefly carried to 
market in flour. The other parts of Washington are much the same as the inferior 
parts of Frederick. The improvement of inland navigation on the Potomac, is 
likely to lessen greatly the expense of the carriage of the produce of these counties, 
and of course render the lands much more valuable. 

It may be remarked, and seem strange, that I have estimated the produce of the 
richer and poorer fresh lands in their first crops not very different. I believe the 
fact will justify me, for land of middling and inferior quality, for the first two years, 
makes a very vigorous exertion. 

I have confined myself chiefly to what I believe is the present actual general state 
of things; and when the price of land and of labour is considered, it will not seem 
wonderful that men will generally, as they are able, go into new purchases, rather 
than highly improve their own lands; but general as the practice is, it is not 
universal. There are instances among us, of thirty bushels of wheat, on an average 
of years, being raised to the acre, on particularly manured and highly cultivated 
spots; and, from essays, it is a common opinion, that good land, highly cultivated and 
manured, will produce from forty to fifty bushels of Indian corn to the acre, and even 
more. 



48 

Mr. Edward Tilghman, now dead, had three squares of twenty acres each; he 
tilled one in tobacco. Tobacco was not the first object with him, it gave place to his 
wheat; on a particular day in September he cleared his ground of the tobacco, 
whether so ripe as he wished or not; he seeded it in wheat; he let nothing in till the 
May after harvest, unless his calves in the fall, and before hard frost. He, the next 
year, pastured twenty cows on the same field; they were turned in with discretion, 
twice or thrice a day for an hour or two at a time; he stabled his cows, and manured 
for tobacco ; he thus went round many years. I was at his house upwards of thirty 
years ago, and saw those fields; it was about the fifth of May — one was then in very 
strong wheat — in the second, the white clover was considerably more than ancle 
high, with twenty cows, one or two more or less, feeding on it; and the third was 
ploughed up for tobacco, from which, he then told me, he had the preceding year 
made fourteen hundred pounds of butter. He has told me, that his tobacco has 
generally turned out one thousand pounds to the acre; and his nephew told me, 
some years, about twelve years after, that his wheat, for fifteen years, had averaged 
thirty-two bushels and a fraction to the acre. We have land in this neighbourhood, 
full as good, naturally, as Mr. Tilghman's, which is in Queen Anne's county; and 
the crops are rather more certain in this than in that part of the country. Indeed 
we are very seldom injured by mildews, scab, or blight; the last we scarcely know. 
Mr. Tilghraan also has told me, that he had upwards of five hundred bushels of head 
turnips to the acre. 

As soon as the wood is taken off our strong land, it is covered with white clover, 
which seems as natural to the soil as wood ; if the land is not so light as to push the 
wheat into straw too much, twenty bushels an acre may be expected the first crop. 
Those who are accpiainted with cultivation, know that manured land will ])roduce 
more grain, or seed, than the richest fresh land, and may calculule for themselves 
what may be expected from fresh land, under good management. 

The truth warrants it, and it may not be amiss to remark, that the District of 
Columbia is the point where the general productions meet in greater perfection than 



49 

any other, and that from thence some improve or decline towards the east, and others 
towards the west, in at least as small distances as towards the north and south. 
Grass, grain, and fruits of all kinds are very good. To the southward and eastward, 
grass, wheat, rye, oats, and apples, are less perfect, or produced in less quantities. 
Cherries, of the more delicious kinds, peaches, apricots, nectarines, figs, and melons, 
improve. To the northward and westward the latter are not so perfect ; the former 
improve, till the neighbourhood of this, and especially in the mountains. Apples 
are equal to those of the Jersies. 

Our wheat is commonly sixty pounds; this year sLxty-three, and some of it sixty- 
seven. Our grass, rye, and oats, better. Pursuing the west to the Alleghany, you 
come into a country equal, perhaps, to any in the world, for grass, rye, oats, potatoes, 
and flax, as well as excellent for wheat; it is generally said, that the oats weigh 
forty-six : wheat from sixty-four to sixty-seven. That the potatoes are abundant, 
of uncommon size, and excellent in quality, and that the hackled flax is generally 
a yard long ; some of it is certainly so. 



Hvde-Park, Fairfax County, Virginia, Nov. 18, 1791. 
Dear Sir, 

A desire of conversing with the most intelligent persons in my neighbourhood, 
and instituting a correspondence with others, on the subject of your inquiry, will, I 
hope, plead my excuse, in being so late in answering your letter of August. I never 
entertained very high opinions of our system of farming, but what I had is certainly 
lower than it was. Our farms are, in general, too large to admit of much nicety, 
and, I believe, it would be unhappy for us to have any great desire to be so, with our 
black labourers, and the more worthless wretches we employ to overlook them. The 
manner too, in which our attention has been engrossed by the cultivation of tobacco, 
and large quantities of Indian corn, has, no doubt, had some share in rendering us 
slovenly farmers. Having had, hitherto, plenty of fresh land for these articles, we 

13 



50 

have disregarded every means of improving our opened grounds, cither by manure, 
or laying them down in grasses; but as we begin now to set some store by our woods, 
and tobacco has dechned so much in value, that people are generally exchanging 
tobacco for wheat, I flatter myself, the face of our country will soon assume an 
appearance, that will not only do honour to our climate, but ourselves. Indeed it has 
long been evident to me, that our sagacious northern brethren, not only considered 
our climate as superior to their own, but our lands too as capable of being made so, 
from their constant annual emigrations among us. As we may be said to be entirely 
indebted to these for the best farms among us, it is very desirable that they should 
liappen in a tenfold ratio. 

Although, from a comparative view of the exports of wheat from the several States 
in the Union, it appears that considerably more of that article is annually exported 
from Virginia than from any of the professedly farming States; still it has scarcely, 
hitherto, been considered as a secondary object on our farms. Till very lately, the 
practice of fallowing grounds for wheat, was seldom followed, and even now, it is by 
no means so general as could be wished. The usual mode of sowing it has been, and 
is now, too generally, in our old corn-fields, when the Indian corn is laid by, and 
which are cultivated every second or third year, without receiving any manure, or 
being laid down in clover after the crop is taken off. Those who are considered as 
the best farmers, and fallow most, trust entirely to their ploughing. Their fields are 
too extensive for the manure raised from their stock, and we have as yet no other in 
use. I thought it necessary to premise thus much, generally, respecting our mode of 
ao-riculture, to prevent our climate and soil being unjustly blamed for what we alone 
are chargeable. It is applicable to the whole State, I believe. I shall now take your 
queries in their order, and consider first the lands in Fairfax county, which is situated 
on the river Potomac, and bounded by it for near forty miles. The lands here, are 
generally thin, and the soil a stiff clay. At a little distance from the river, they are 
rather hilly and broken. The pasturage in summer, is better than might be expected 
from the appearance of the land, for, notwithstanding all our bad management, our 
fields yield the white clover plentifully, and I am satisfied no grounds can turn out 



51 

the red clover lo belter advantage, where tliey are well manured. Though the county 
cannot be considered as abounchng so much in meadow lands as some others, yet 
there are few people but have them. On the river, the most valuable grounds for 
meadows, the Pocasons, are still unreclaimed ; and, indeed, in every part of the county, 
some of the most valuable grounds for meadows, are still in their natural state. I can- 
not inform you of the proportion of meadow-laud to the arable, for accuracy in these 
matters is out of the question in Virginia; nor of woodland to either: but I think I 
am not wrong with respect to the latter, in saying, that better than half the county is 
still in woods. In the upper parts of the county, from ten to twenty miles from the 
river, the soil is much intermixed with stones. The average yield of wheat, in the 
mode of agriculture which I have already mentioned was practised with us, is about 
six for one; in fallowed grounds, about eight and ten for one. The old tobacco 
grounds which have been well manured, will yield from twenty to thirty. Tlic 
average yield of oats and rye, which have also but a poor chance, (being generally 
sowed in old worn out corn fields,) is from ten to fifteen, for one; buck- wheat from 
fifteen to twenty. Barley is not cultivated here. Indian corn, from ten to fifteen 
bushels an acre. As to pease, beans, potatoes, and turnips, our lands yield them 
very well ; but as they are not raised for market in general, I cannot say what may 
be their average product per acre. It has ever appeared to me, that if the farmers in 
Europe, who lay so much stress upon these articles in their writings, had our excel- 
lent substitute for them, Indian corn, they would only regard them as we do, for 
culinary purposes. The chief grass cultivated here is the timothy ; the average 
product of it, per acre, is about a ton. It is certainly the best adapted to our hot suns, 
and particularly our slovenly management of any grass ; and this, perhaps, is the 
best reason which can be given for our attending so little to any other. Of hemp, 
we raise scarce any in this county; and of flax, as we raise it only for our own 
domestic purposes, all I can say of it is, that it grows very kindly and plentifully. 
The fee-simple prices of lands at the distance of ten miles from the river and town 
of Alexandria, is from twenty to forty shillings per acre, according to quality. It 
is remarkable, that lands in no respect superior, on the opposite side of the river in 
Maryland, and equally distant from the river, sell currently at 4/. and 51 per acre. 



52 

I know not how such a difference is to be accounted tor, but from the greater degree 
of population in proportion to their country. The same circumstance must, I suppose, 
account for the lands in Virginia being generally so much cheaper, though equal in 
quality, and possessing a milder climate than the lands in the northern States. The 
rents of our lands have increased much within these few years. From the first 
settlement of the country, till lately, it was the practice to rent them on leases for 
two and three lives, at so much tobacco a hundred acres ; very often not more than 
two hundred pounds of tobacco an hundred ; at present, however, from the uncer- 
tain price of tobacco, the rents in that article are become unusual ; so that the com- 
mon mode of renting is now, either by the )^ear, or for a term of ten or twenty 
years, and at the rate of 8/. to 10/. an hundred. This mode is preferred by the 
tenants, from an idea which, I believe, to be natural to the human mind, that of 
becoming one day lords of their own little territory. I think it is often cherished, by 
our people, to an excess which frequently injures them. 

The lands in Prince William county and Fauquier, from twenty to thirty miles 
from Dumfries (a town on the Potomac, about thirty miles below Alexandria) are, I 
think, much superior to the lands in Fairfax, being both more level and richer, with 
a greater quantity of meadow land, though they make still less of it than we do; 
their system of farming is, certainly worse than in Fairfax. Hence, their yield of 
the several kinds of crops, though on better lan'd, does not average more than with 
us. They have been, and are still, more unfortunately attached to tobacco than we 
have been. The soil of both these counties is much alike, being of a reddish clay ; 
at the distance of two or three feet from the surface, a thin stratum of a stone resemb- 
ling slate is found; hence, their springs are not so abundant, nor is the water as good 
as could be wished ; but when wells have been dug, the water has been found as good 
as any where. The average fee-simple prices of their lands, are from 20s. to 30*. an 
acre; the terms of rents are much as they are in Fairfax. 

The county of Loudoun lies on the Potomac, above Fairfax, and is, perhaps, the 
best farming county in the State, being thickly settled with Quakers and Germans, 



53 

from Pennsylvania. Tlie lowest corner of the county is about ten miles from tide- 
water, and it extends up the river with the meanders thereof, upwards of fifty miles. 
It is well supplied Avith springs, water-courses, and meadows; what are called the 
bottom lands on the river, are very rich, but the soil throughout the county is 
generally stiff, and of a reddish cast. The upper parts of the county are mountain- 
ous; better than half the county is in woods, as is also the case with the two last 
mentioned counties. Much more attention is paid to meadows here, than in either of 
the counties yet mentioned, it being the first object, in general, in every settlement, 
and their chief concern afterwards. The bottom lands on the river sell from 3/. to 
5/. an acre; in the interior part of the county from 1/. 10s. to 3/. an acre. There are 
many leases for lives in this county, given some years ago, by gentlemen holding 
quantities of lands, at 2l. and 5/. an hundred acres; but the common mode of renting, 
on the expiration of leases, is for a term of years not exceeding, in general, twenty- 
one, and from 10/. to 20/. an hundred acres. It is also common, in many instances, 
to rent, for one-third of the produce. The average produce of wheat per acre, is 
from eight to ten bushels on their common lands, w^hich, like those in Fairfax, have 
been much exhausted. Their fresh, or river lands, produce from ten to fifteen 
bushels; the average produce of Indian corn is about fifteen bushels; of rye, twenty; 
speltz, thirty ; oats, twenty-five ; and barley thirty, though the last is chiefly raised 
for the purposes of home-l)rewing, and by the Germans. They manufacture most 
of their own linen and woollens in this county, and distil most of the spirits used, 
from rye, peaches, and apples, and make a considerable quantity of cider for market: 
they also make many waggons for §ale, and almost all iron utensils for their own use. 
The meadows yield them better than a ton an acre. I forgot to mention above, the 
produce of buck- wheat; I am told that the Germans and Quakers frequently raise it 
from thirty to sixty bushels an acre. What I have already observed with respect to 
the smaller produce of the farm, peas, potatoes, &c. must suffice for all the counties I 
have to mention. I have no doubt but the Germans and Pennsylvanians of Loudoun 
would reap more profit from them than we do ; but their distance from market has 
hitherto prevented them from raising them for sale, and we seldom attend to what is 
consumed on the farm. 

14 



54 

I shall now proceed to Berkeley, which, in point of fertility, is without doubt, the 
richest county in the State. This county lies also on the Potomac, and is penetrated 
by the Shenandoah, wich empties into that river. The lands here, M'hich are called 
the Valley, running parallel with the Shenandoah, and between that and the North 
Mountains, may be divided into four classes : the first quality sells at 41 an acre, 
second at 3/., third at 2/., and fourth at 1/. 10s.. in fee-simple. The mode of renting 
lands is here too, either by the year, or a short term of years, as there are no lands 
which rise faster in value. The first quality rents from 20 to 301 an hundred acres, 
the other qualities in proportion ; and none for less than 10/. The lands of the first 
quality are considered as too rich for wheat, and, in the general method of seeding, 
do not succeed so well as those of the second, being more liable to fall, and the rust. 
It is probable this may proceed from their not giving it seed in proportion to its 
strength, or from their sowing it as early as their other grounds. That very rich 
grounds do not succeed so well on early sowing, I am convinced, from several trials 
which I have been witness to, by a neighbour of mine on a rich island. This spot, 
which, when sowed in August, would yield scarcely any thing but straAv, when 
sowed in the latter end of October, or first of November, yielded abundantly. The 
second quality produces from fifteen to twenty bushels, when fallowed ; the third 
from ten to twelve ; and the fourth from eight to ten. The first rate lands produce 
from forty to fifty bushels of oats per acre, and rye in proportion ; the other qualities 
from twenty to forty. Indian corn from twenty to forty bushels, according to the 
quality of the land, and buck-wheat from thirty to sixty. Barley would, no doubt, 
succeed well on such lands; but I am informed that they raise none. The natural 
meadows are certainly superior to any to be met with any where ; what is called 
the English blue grass, flourishes in the greatest luxuriancy, and is common 
throughout the county. The average crop of timothy is nearly two tons an acre. 
The soil of the best lands is dark and fine; of the second lighter, and intermixed 
with soft stones; that of the third and fourth rates still lighter. The whole surface 
of the ground, when cleared, is covered with blue grass. I must now observe, with 
respect to the counties of Loudoun and Berkeley, that the completion of the na^i- 
gation of the Potomac, (which we expect will happen, at the farthest, in two years,) 



^y^y 



will be attended with unmensc benefits to them. Their produce, of every sort, will 
be brought to market on as cheap terms as those who live at the distance of eight or 
ten miles. This circumstance, added to tlic .superiority of their lands, certainly 
renders them the most desirable of any counties in the State; and when it is con- 
sidered that they already have the two flourishing towns of Alexandria and George- 
town for their markets, and an act of Congress for establishing their permanent 
residence between these places, I think it cannot be doubted that they are the most 
eligible situations in the Union. In the subjoined table, you have the prices current, 
as accurately as I could ascertain them. 

Prices current, in Virginia money, 65. the dollar. Best hor.ses, from 201 to 251; 
second rate, from I2f. to 201; small horses may be bought much lower. Oxen from 
8/. to 15/. a pair; steers unbroke, at 21 10s. to 31; best milk cows* at 41.; second-rate 
at about 2l. lOs. to 3/.; veal, at 2d. to 2id and 3d. per lb.; mutton, at 3d. per lb.; 
pork, from 20s. to 305. per lOOlbs.; butter from 6d. to 8d. per lb.; cheese, from 4d. 
to 6d. per lb.; tallow, at 8d. per lb. Sheep, from 65. to 155.; hogs, 12 months old, 
from 125. to 155. according to size; beef, at 2d. to 3d.; geese, from I5. to 25.; turkeys, 
25.; ducks, from 6d. to 9d.; hens, from Od. to 8d.; chickens, from 35. to 45. per dozen. 

Wheat, about 45. 6d. per bushel; buck-wheat, 25.; corn, 25.; beans and peas, 35. to 
45.; turnips and potatoes, from 9d. to I5. 

Hackled flax, from I5. to I5. 3d. per lb.; hemp from the break, from 285. to 3O5. 
per lOOlbs.; iron, from 25/. to 271. per ton. 

In the county of Fairfax, from its vicinity to market, several of the above articles 
will average higher. 

RATES OF THE TAXES ON PROPERTY. 5. d. 

On land, for every 100/. valuation 7 G 

On Negroes, each above 12 2 G 

On horses, each . . . . . . . . .06 

On chariots, per wheel . . . . . . . . 9 G 

On riding chairs, per wheel . . . . .... 30 

. Parish levies from 10 to 30lbs. of tobacco per titheable. 



56 

County taxes much the same. The two last vary each year, according to the 
number of poor to be supported, and the number of criminals; but for the latter we 
are reimbursed by the public. 

Our taxes have also been diminishing every year since peace, so that no country 
has less reason to complain of public burthens at present. 

The above is a list of our State taxes. The only tax imposed by the general 
government, and which the farmer feels, is the tax on stills; this is about &d. a 
gallon. Though, from its novelty, it has excited some murmurs, I cannot think it 
can be considered as unreasonable, or improper, by those who reflect either on the 
great injuries produced by the cheapness of distilled liquors among us, or the exce.s- 
sive profits made by the county distillers. 

I cannot conclude, without regretting that I have not been able to find you a more 
accurate account, in many particulars. I flatter myself it is at least a faithful one : 
I have used my best endeavours to make it so. It has certainly not been in my 
power to pay any compliments to our farmers for their management. 

I am, dear Sir, 

With the greatest respect, 

Your most obedient servant. 
The President of the United States. 



THE FOLLOWING DETACHED INFORMATION IS COMMUNICATED BY PERSONS ON WHOSE KNOWLEDGE AND 
ACCURACY RELIANCE MAY BE PLACED. 

The writer hereof is best acquainted with that tract of land which crosses Vir- 
ginia, fi-om northeast to southwest, by the names of the Bull-run Mountains, South 
Mountains, and Green Mountains, and is generally six or eight miles wide, one half 
of which is the mountain itself, and therefore steep; the residue lies at the foot, on 



57 

each side", in large waving hills, perfectly accessible to the plough. It is of a dark 
red colour, the richest of it is a pure mould, or loam, without the least mixture of 
sand or grit, though often a good deal of broken stone ; when first cleared of its tim- 
ber, it lies loose for about a foot deep, that is to say, as far down as the frosts have 
penetrated, but below that, for many feet, the earth is still the same, but hard, as 
having never yet been opened by the frost; when it has been turned up by the 
plough and has been exposed to the frost a winter or two, it is nearly as rich as the 
original first soil. This land is excellent for wheat and rye, but yields poorly in 
oats; for Indian corn it is middhng. The fruits which abound, are apples, peaches, 
and cherries. The country perfectly healthy, and the climate more moderate in sum- 
mer than that below, and in winter than that above. Most of the parcels of land 
held by individuals, have been so laid out, as to contain about one-third of the first 
quality, as above described; one-third of a middling quality; and one-third of bar- 
rens well timbered. The husbandry is, in general, very slovenly ; under such as it 
is, the lands of the first quality will produce thirty bushels of wheat to the acre, 
when fresh, and being tended alternately in wheat and Indian corn, (the latter of 
which is a great exhauster,) without ever being rested or manured, they fall at length 
down to eight or ten bushels the acre. The soil of middling quality will yield 
twelve or fifteen bushels of wheat the acre, when fresh, and fall down to about eight. 
The grasses which have been found to succeed best, are red clover and orchard 
grass; green sward does well also ; only one good cutting of these can be counted 
on, unless the ground can be watered. A tract consisting of the three qualities 
before mentioned, in equal quantities, in that part which lies near the Rivanna river, 
say about Charlotteville, will sell for about 22s. 6d. to 27s. 6d. sterling the acre, on an 
average; it will be more or less, in proportion as there is more or less of the best 
or worst qualities; produce is water-borne from hence to the tide-waters seventy 
miles distant. Advancing north-eastwardly along the same mountains, these lands 
are dearer, though their produce cannot be water-borne till they reach the Potomac. 
Going south-westwardly along the same mountains, lands become cheaper. Where 
they cross the Fluvanna, or James river, they are about two-thirds of the price 

15 



58 

before mentioned; and from that part their produce may also be water-borne to 
tide-waters one hundred and thirty miles distant. 

Ordinary prices about Charlotteville are as follows : 

A labouring negro man is hired by the year, for 9/. sterling, his clothes, and food. 
A good plough-horse costs 10^. to 12^. sterling. 

A cow, 305.; a sheep 65.; a sow IO5.; a goose, or a turkey, 2.?.; a dung-hill fowl, GrZ 
A bushel of wheat, 35.; of rye, 22^d.; of Indian corn Is. 6cZ. 
Beef in autumn, and pork in winter, IGs. the lOOlbs.; bacon, 6d. to 8d. the lb. 
Hay, 455. the ton. 
Auffust 3, 1791. 



from mr. powell, president of the agricultural society of philadelphia. 
Dear Sir, 

Agreeably to your request, I have now the pleasure to send you an extract of my 
letter to Arthur Young, Esq., relative to the prices of the following articles in Penn- 
sylvania, viz. 

Wheat, per bushel, 65. to 65. 'id. ; rye, 85. 9d. to 45. ; Indian corn, 25. 6d. ; oats, 
I5. 8d.; barley, 45.; clover hay, per ton, 41 IO5.; beef, per lOOlbs. 255.; pork, 275. 6d.; 
a good working horse, 20Z.; a pair of good working oxen, 900lbs. each, 20/. to 24/.; a 

milk cow and calf, 5/. to 6/.; store sheep, by the flock, IO5. to 155.; wool, ; dressed 

flax, ; bricks, per thousand, 225. 6d.; stone-lime, per bushel, lid. to I5.; cultiva- 
ted farms of good land, in the old counties, not within twenty miles of Philadelphia, 
extremely various; the average, at random, perhaps, 5/. per acre. 



The par of exchange with Great Britain, 166 two-thirds. 
An English guinea passes current at 355. 



59 

With respect to taxes, the second oljject of inquirj^ my information is as follows; 
and I believe it may be relied on : 



Franklin county, . 
York county, . . . 
Nortluimberland county. 
Fayette county, . . 
Cumberland county, 
Chester county, . . , 
Dekiware county, . , 
Washington county, 
Philadelphia county. 



> 
















n 




a 




(n 


^3 




w 






c 




S 




a 




ra 


"* 


u^ 


a. 


n 


^ 


H 












>^ 




X 




















5 








360 


none 


none 


35s. 


500 


none 


40s. 


30s. 


300 


none 


10s. 


•iOs. 


364 


15s. 


10s. 


none 


650 


2s. 6fZ. 


60s. 


27s. 


500 


35s. 


70s. 


35s. 


450 


30s. 


60s. 


60s. 


300 


none 


20s. 


12s. 


80 


10s. lOd. 


22s. 5d. 


15s. 2d. 



The foregoing are the taxes on the farms, containing the number of acres men- 
tioned in the list in the different counties. The respective sums make the aggregate 
of the taxes upon each farm in the respective counties. 

It is here to be observed, that there are farms in the oldest, as well as in the newest 
counties, set down in the list. If the information appears to you in any respect defi- 
cient, I will endeavour to procure such as may be more satisfactory ; though I think 
what is herein contained, must convince Mr. Y. that our present taxes are very 
moderate. 

If on this, or any other subject, I can be of any use to you, I beg that you will 
freely lay your commands on, 

Dear Sir, 

Your affectionate, 

And obliged humble servant. 
PiiiLADELPniA, October 24, 1790. 



His Excellency, the President of the United States. 



60 



PniLADELrniA, Juno 18, 1792. 
Sir, 

Your letter of the IStli of January, was received about a fortnight ago. For the 
Annals, which you have had the goodness to send me, I pray you to accept my thanks. 
No directions having accompanied the second set, and presuming they were intended 
for the Agricultural Society in this city, I have, in your name, presented them to 
that body. 

As far as it is in my power, I will endeavour to solve the doubts ^\■hich are ex- 
pressed in your queries, contained in the above letter : and first, " Labour is so slightly 
touched on, that I know not how to estimate it." 

The information on this, a.s well as on other points of my last communication, was 
given in transcripts of the letters I had received in answer to certain queries, hastily 
submitted to some intelligent gentlemen of my acquaintance, in the state of Pennsyl- 
vania, Maryland, and Virginia. If, therefore, the article of labour was not sufficiently 
enlarged upon ; or, if there appeared too great a diversity in the price of this article ; 
in that of land; and of other things, to be easily reconciled and understood; you 
must ascribe the inconsistency, or omission, to that cause, and to the habits and value 
which is set on these things in the different States, and in different parts of the same 
State. South of Pennsylvania, hired labour is not very common, except it be at 
harvest, and sometimes for cutting grass. The wealthier farmers perform it with 
their own black scrvant.s, whilst the poorer sort are obliged to do it themselves. 
That labour in this country is higher than it is in England, I can readily conceive. 
The ease with which a man can obtain land in fee, beyond the mountains, to which 
most of that class of people repair, may be assigned as the primary cause of it. But 
high wages is not the worst evil attending the hire of white men in this country ; for 
being accustomed to better fare than, I believe, the labourers of almost any other 
country, adds considerably to the expense of employing them; whilst blacks, on the 



61 

contrary, are cheaper, the common food of them, even when well treated, being 
bread made of Indian corn, butter-milk, fish, (pickled herrings) frequently, and meat 
now and then ; with a blanket for bedding. In addition to these, ground is often 
allowed them for gardening, and privilege given them to raise dung-hill fowls for 
their own use. With the farmer who has not more than two or three negroes, little 
difference is made in the manner of living between the master and the man ; but far 
otherwise is the case with those who are owned in great numbers by the wealthy ; 
who are not always as kind, and as attentive to their wants and usage, as they ought 
to be ; for by these they are fed upon bread alone, which does not, on an average, 
cost more than seven dollars a head per annum, (about 325. sterling.) 

From these data, in aid of my last communications, you will be able to form an 
idea of the cost of labour in this country. It varies, however, in the different States, 
as I have already observed, and sometimes in the same State ; but may be said to 
vibrate with white men, between ten and fifteen pounds ; and for black men, 
between eight and twelve pounds sterling, per annum, besides their board. No diffi- 
culty, I should conceive, would be formed in obtaining those of either description, 
on the terms here mentioned; but I do not advance this with certainty, not having 
been in the habit of hiring any myself, for several years past. Blacks are capable of 
much labour, but having (I am speaking generally) no ambition to establish a good 
name, they are too regardless of a bad one, and of course require more of the master's 
eye than the former. Formerly, I have given to skilful and careful cradlers, a dollar 
a day, during harvest, which was a sixth more than the usual price; but then, I 
knew the men, and that they would oblige themselves to cut clean and lay well, four 
acres of wheat a day, (if it did not stand very heavy on the ground); or, if I pre- 
ferred it, they would cut by the acre, paying them at the rate of a dollar for every 
four acres. There are men, who will rake and bind as fast as the cradlers will cut 
the grain, but to do this is deemed hard work, and when done, entitles them to cra- 
dlers' wages. These people eat three times a day, (once, perhaps, of milk,) and are 
allowed a pint of spirits each man. A barn-floor, with straw and a blanket, serves 
them al harvest for lodging. 

16 



62 

When I observed in a former letter, that " all our laljour was performed hy 
negroes," I must have alluded lo the custom in Virginia, the State in which I then 
lived, and from which I wrote; but my last communication to you was on a more 
extensive scale, comj^rehending the practices and prices of Pennsylvania and Mary- 
land, as well as different parts of Virginia ; which (latter) is a State of great extent, 
differing much in its products and culture. 

The English statute acre is the measure by which we have hitherto bought and 
sold land ; and the price of land, as handed to you in my last, includes buildings, 
fences, arable, meadow, in short, the improvements of every sort appertaining to the 
tract on which they are placed. To a stranger at a distance, this aggregate mode of 
estimating the value of a farm is, it must be confessed, dark and imsatisfactory ; 
but to the parties present, who see and examine every thing, and judge for them- 
selves, it is quite immaterial. The seller warrants the title and quantity which he 
sells, and both form an opinion of the total worth of the premises. It rarely hap- 
pens, however, that buildings and other improvements are estimated by the purchaser 
at near what they cost the seller, especially on old farms, which have been a good 
deal worked ; the received opinion being, that fresh land, without improvements, is 
more to be desired, than worn and much abused land is, Avith such as are usually 
found thereon : but this is to be considered as a general, not an invariable rule; for 
the better and more attentive farmers keep their forms in high order, and value the 
improvements accordingly. Never having been in England, I ought not to hazard 
an opinion, or attempt a comparison between the sod of that -country and this, in 
their virgin and unimproved state ; but from what I know of the one, and have 
heard of the other, I should decide in favour of the latter, at a distance from the sea- 
board; which, from the high lands of the Neversink (in East Jersey) to Florida 
inclusively, is flat, and with but few exceptions sandy, and generally of mean 
quality. From the falls of the rivers to the mountains, which is generally from 
sixty to one hundred miles, and above the latter — except the craggy hills and moun- 
tains which lie between the eastern and M-estern waters — the best lands are to be 
found. They are strong, and after having been used and abused in a shameful 



G3 

manner, will, with ;i Utile repose, get covered with while clover. The upper country 
is healthiest also. 

You seem surprised, and no wonder, to hear that many of our farmers, if the}^ can 
be so called, cultivate much ground for little profit, because land is cheap, and labour 
is high ; but you will remember, that when I informed you of this fact, I reprobated, 
at the same time, both the practice and principle. The history, however, of it is this; 
a piece of land is cut down, and kept under constant cultivation, first in tobacco, and 
then in Indian corn (two very exhausting plants), until it will yield scarcely any 
thing ; a second piece is cleared, and treated in the same manner ; then a third, and 
so on, until probably there is but little more to clear. When this happens, the owner 
finds himself reduced to the choice of one of three things — either to recover the land 
which he has ruined, to accomplish which, he has perhaps neither the skill, the in- 
dustry, nor the means; or to retire beyond the mountains; or to substitute quantity 
for quality, in order to raise something. The latter has been generally adopted, and, 
with the assistance of horses, he scratches over much ground, and seeds it, to very lit- 
tle purpose, as you may suppose, and have been informed; for I presume an English 
farmer would bestow more labour on one acre, by deep and frequent ploughings, 
besides the dressings he gives to the land, than the other does ow five acres. It is but 
justice, however, to Pennsylvania, to declare, that her husbandry (though not perfect) 
is much better, and her crops proportionably greater. The practice above-mentioned 
applies more particularly to the tobacco States, which, happily, are yielding more and 
more every year to the growth of wheat ; and as this prevails the husbandry improves. 
Instances could be enumerated, and where no extraordinary dressings or management 
has been used, of land yielding from thirty to forty bushels of wheat per acre, that has 
been very much exhausted. 

Your mode of calculating the taxes in this country being unusual with us, I may 
not accurately understand ; and as the Virginia method was, if I recollect rightly, 
detailed in my former accounts, I know not how to give you a more distinct idea of 
them, than by exhibiting the items of the specific charges on every species of taxable 



64 

property, viz. on land, negroes, stock, &c. This, as it respects an estate in Virginia, 
with wliicli I am very well acquainted, I am enabled to do, and will do. We have a 
road-tax besides, but it is light, and, in most of the States, paid by a contribution of 
labour, which rarely exceeds two days in the year for each male labourer. Dutiable 
articles is a distinct tax, the quantum of which depends upon the consumption, upon 
the disposition of the consumer: with the aid, therefore, of the laws (which I sent you) 
every man can calculate, better than I am able to do for him, the amount of his own 
expenditures in this way. An additional duty, or excise, was imposed last session, 
and this being now sent, will, if I am not mistaken (with what was mentioned in my 
former communications) bring every tax, direct and indirect, to your view, to which 
property in this country is subjected, either by the general government, or the laws 
of the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, to which the observations have 
been confined. 

Beef, and other meats, grain of all sorts, and flour, butter, cheese, and other things, 
in quantities to make them an object, are always, I conceive, in demand ; and are 
sought after by the purchasers. The sale of lesser articles, at a distance from markets 
towns, may sometimes stick on hand, but rarely, I believe, forego a sale, if they are 
worth the transportation. 

Sheep thrive very well in the middle States, though they are not exempt from 
diseases, and are often injured by dogs ; and more so as you approach the mountains, 
by wolves. Were we to use horses less, and oxen more, on our farms (as they do in 
the New England States,) we should, unquestionably, find our account in it; yet, 
strange as it may seem, few are in the practice of the latter; and none push the raising 
of sheep to the extent they might, and ought to do. The fact is, we have, in a man- 
ner, every thing to learn that respects neat and profitable husbandry. 

Bakewell's breed of sheep are much celebrated, and deservedly, I presume ; but if 
entrusted to a common bailiff (or with us is called an overseer), they would, I should 
apprehend, soon degenerate, for want of that care and attention which is necessary to 



65 

preserve the breed in its piirity. But the great impediment is the British statutes; 
these discourage men of delicacy, in this country, from attempting what might involve 
the master of a vessel in serious consequences, if detected in the breach of them. 
Others, however, less scrupulous, have attempted to import English rams with suc- 
cess, and by this means, our flocks, in many places, are much improved; mine, for 
instance, though I never was concerned, directly nor indirectly, in the importation 
of one, further than by buying lambs which have descended from them. 

Our modes — system we have none — are so different from yours, generally speak- 
ing, and our business being carried on so much within ourselves, so little by hiring, 
and still less by calculation, that I frankly confess to you, I am unable to solve your 
query respecting sheep-walks, or how many sheep an acre of woodland pasture would 
support. I shall have pleasure, at all times, as far as I possess the means, or can 
command them, to ■ give you every information that can contribute to your own 
satisfaction or that of a friend ; but I am so thoroughly persuaded of my inability to 
throw new lights upon any branch of husbandry, in a country where it is so well 
\inderstood as in England, and that any thing I could write to you on that subject 
would only serve to expose the defective practice of my countrymen, and be con- 
sidered as the beacon of our ignorance, that I am rather disinclined to see any produc- 
tion of mine in a ^vork where so much useful information is conveyed to the public, 
as is to be found in your Annals of Agriculture. 

With very great esteem, 

I am. Sir, 
Your most obedient servant. 

G. WASHINGTON. 

P. S. June 21st. I have not yet received the account of taxes I promised you, and 
for which I had written to Virginia ; but I will send it by the first conveyance after 
its arrival. 

This letter goes by Mr. Pinckney, Minister from the United States to the Court of 

17 



66 

London, wlio, being detained a day or two longer than was expected by the vessel 
in which he is to embark, has given me an opportunity of asking Mr. Jefferson (who 
is well acquainted with the south-western parts of Virginia, near Charlotteville,) and 
Mr. Peters (one of the best farmers in the state of Pennsylvania, about six miles 
from this city,) to give me their sentiments on the several queries contained in your 
letter. These you will find inclosed herewith, in their own words.* Mine, and 
each of theirs, are written without any previous consultation, and may be considered 
(my estate in the neighbourhood of which I am best acquainted, lying about midway 
between theirs) as the opinions of men living north, south, and in the centre of the 
district, of which an account was given to you in my communications of the 4th of 
December last. 

*On applying to Colonel Hamilton, for the statement mentioned in Mr. Peters's letter, he put into my 
hands, together with the statement, several communications which were made to him last year, by some of 
the most respectable farmers in this part of the country, in consequence of an application from him, for 
information on certain points respecting farms ; and, as they appeared to contain some matters worth atten- 
tion, I had them copied, and they are also inclosed. 



NOTES BY MR. JEFFERSON ON MR. YOUNG'S LETTER. 

Paragraph 3. "Is the labour of negroes, at 9Z. sterling to be commanded in any 
amount?" If taken by the year, it may be commanded in any amount, but not if 
wanted on particular occasions only; as for harvest, for particular dressings of the 
land, &c. 

Par. 4. The labour of a negro, Mr. Young reckons cent, per cent, dearer than the 
labour of England. To the hirer of a negro man, his hire will cost 9/. and his 
subsistence, clothing, and tools, 6/., making 16/. sterling, or at the most, it may some- 
times be 18/. To the owner of a negro, his labour costs as follows: suppose a negro 
man, of twenty -five years of age, costs 75/. sterling; he has an equal chance to live 



67 

thirty years, according to BulTon's tables, so that you lose your principal in thirty 
years ; then say, 

£ s. 
Interest of 75/. annually . . . . . . 3 15 

One thirtieth annually of the principal 2 10 

Subsistence, clothes, &c. annually . . . . . .GO 

£ 12 5 
There must be some addition to this, to make the labour equal to that of a white 
man, as I believe the negro does not perform quite so much work, nor with as much 
intelligence. But Mr. Young reckons a labouring man in England 8/. and his board 
16/., making 24/. 

Par. 5. " In the instances of mountain land, the expressions seem to indicate 
waste land, unbuilt and uninclosed." If Mr. Young has reference here to the notes 
which Th. J. gave to the President, on the subject of mountain lands, the following 
explanation is necessary. The lands therein contemplated, are generally about one- 
half cleared of the timber which grew on them ; say all the land of the first quality, 
and half that of the middling quality : this half is, for the most part, inclosed with 
rail fences, which do not last long (except where they are of chestnut), but are easily 
repaired or renewed. The houses on them, for the use of the farm, are so slight and 
of so little worth, that they are thrown into the bargain, without a separate estimate. 
The same may be said of the farmer's house, unless it be better than common. 
When it is of considerable value, it adds to the price of the land, but by no means 
its whole value. With respect to the soil, I saw no upland in England comparable 
to it. My travels there, were from Dover to London, and on to Birmingham, 
making excursions of twenty or thirty miles each way. At Edgehill, in Warwick- 
shire, my road led me over a red soil, something like this, as well as I recollect; but 
it is too long ago to speak with certainty. 

Par. 7. " That, in America, farmers look to labour much more than to land, is 
new to me ;" but it is a most important circumstance. Wliere land is cheap and 



68 

rich, and labour dear, the same labour spread in a slighter culture over oue hundred 
acres, will produce more profit than if concentrated bj the highest degree of cultiva- 
tion on a small portion of the lands. Whgn the rirgiu fertiUty of the soil becomes 
exhausted, it becomes better to cultivate less, and -weU; the only difficulty is, to 
know at what point of deterioration in the land, the culture should be increased, and 
in what degree. 

Par. 10. "Canyon sell your beef and mutton readily!" The market for them, 
£resh and in quantity, is not certain in Virginia. Beef^ well salted, wiU generally 
find a market; but salted mutton is, perhaps, unknown. 

Par. 11. "Mutton dearer than beef." Sheep are subject to many diseases, which 
eany them off in great numbers. In the midfJIe and upper parts of Virginia, they 
are subject to the wolf^ and in all parts of it to dogs : these Jire great obstacles to their 
mtdtiplication. In the middle and upper parts of the country, the carcass of the beef 
is raised on the spontaneous fixid of the forests, and is delivered to the farmer in good 
plight in the faU, often fat enough for slaughter ; hence its cheapness. Probably, 
however, sheep properly attended to, would be more profitable than catde, as Mr. 
Younsr says. They have not been attended to as they merited. 

Par. 13. Mr. Youns calculates the employment of 5040/. worth of land, and 1200i 
farmers capital, making an assrregate capital of 6240Z. in England, which he makes 
yield five per cent, extra, or ten per cent upon the whole. I wiU calculate, in the 
Virginia way, the employment of the same capital, on a supposition of good manage- 
ment, in the manner of the country. 

L Supposing negro labourers to be hired- 
IL Supposing them to be bought. 

I. Suppose labourers to be hired ; one half men, at 191; the c^er half women, at 
14l for labour, subsistence, and cbldung; (I always mean sterling money.) 



£1155 





219 10 





165 10 






69 

£ s. (L 

Interest of 4160/. for 3310 acres of land, at 255. per acre, 208 

Interest of flry for farmers capital of stock, tools, &c. . . 104 

Taxes, at ~d. the acre (I do not know -what they are,) . 96 10 

Hire of 33 labourers, at 16/. 528 

£936 10 

PRODFCE TO BE SOLD AKNTALLY. 

Wheat, 6600 bushels, at 3.^ £990 

Meat and other articles, at 5/. for each labourer. . . 16c 

Net profit over and above the five per cent, above charged, 

Add annual rise in the value of lands. ..... 

Real profit over and above the five per cent, above chained. £3So 
•which is 6| per cent extra, or 11 J per cent on the whole capital. 

II. Suppose labourers to be bought one half men, .and one half women, at 60/. ster- 
ling, on an average. 

£ s. d. 

Interest of 3125/. for 2500 acres of land at 255 156 5 

Interest of 1562i \0s. formers capital of stock, utensils, &c. . 75 2 6 

Interest of ff4T i o for purchase of 25 labourers. . . £ 75 

Subsistence, clothes. &c. 150 225 

I allow nothing for losses by death, but, on the contrary, shall presentlv 
take credit four per cent per annum, for their increase over and 
above keeping up their own numbers. 

Taxes, at Id. the acre. 72 IS 4 

£532 5 10 

PRODUCE TO BE SOLD A.NSXTALLY. 

Wheat 5000 bushels, at 3.*. £750 

Meat and other articles, at 5/. for each labourer, 125 S75 

18 



70 

Net profit, over and above the five per cent, above charged (13/. 15s. 

a head on negroes,) £342 15 10 

Add five per cent, annual rise in the value of lands, . . . 156 5 

Add four per cent, increase of negroes, more than keeping up original 

number, 60 

Real profit, over and above the five per cent, above charged, . . £559 10 

which is nine per cent, extra, or 14 per cent, on the whole capital. 

In the preceding estimate I have supposed that two hundred bushels of wheat may 
be sold for every labourer employed, which may be thought too high. I know it is 
too high for common land, and common management ; but I know also, that on good 
land, and with good management, it has been done, through a considerable neigh- 
bourhood, and for many years. On the other hand, I have over-rated the cost of 
labouring negroes, and I presume the taxes also are over-rated. I have observed, that 
our families of negroes double iix about twenty-five years, which is an increase of the 
capital invested in them of four per cent, over and above keeping up the original stock. 

I am unable to answer the queries, as to the expense necessary to make an acre of 
forest land maintain one, two, or three sheep. I began an experiment of that kind in 
the year 1783, clearing out the under growth, cutting up the fallen wood, but leaving 
all the good trees. I got through about twenty or thirty acres, and sowed it with 
white clover, and green sward; and intended to have gone on through a forest of 
four or five hundred acres. The land was excessively rich, but too steep to be 
cultivated. In spite of total neglect, during my absence from that time to this, most of 
it has done well. I did not note how much labour it took to prepare it; but I am sure 
it was repaid by the fuel it yielded for the family. The richness of the pasture to be 
thus obtained, vrill always be proportioned to that of the land. Most of our forests is 
either middling or poor. Its inclosure with a wood fence costs little, as the wood is on 
the spot. 

Th. Jefferson. 
18th June, 1792. 



71 



COMMUNICATIONS REFERRED TO AT THE CLOSE OF WASHINGTON'S LETTER OF JUNE 21, 1792, WHICH 
WERE HANDED TO HIM BY COLONEL HAMILTON. 

Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 29tli August, 1791. 
Dear Sir, 

Your letter of the 13th inst. I received this day week. I have endeavoured to 
comply with your request in the best manner I was capable, yet not altogether in 
the way you mentioned. The novelty of the siibject, and never having kept any 
regular account of the annual produce of my lands, nor kno%ving any person to whom 
I could apply for such minute information, made it necessary for me to consider the 
different objects ; and taking to my assistance an intelligent neighbouring farmer, 
without letting him into the object of my pursuit, we together have formed an esti- 
mate, of what may be supposed the average aimual product of the different articles 
raised on the lands here, as you will perceive by the paper herewith transmitted. I 
have added some articles not mentioned by you, and omitted what may be consumed 
by the family who occupy the farm, not doubting but in that particular, you must be 
much more competent to judge than I am; I have therefore only mentioned what I 
suppose the average number of persons on a two hundred acre farm. 

Although I have not filled the columns in the form you sent me, yet am in hopes 
you will be able to extract the necessary information, and reduce it into such form as 
will be most convenient for your purpose. 

Happy in an opportunity afforded me, at least to endeavour to serve you, and 
anxious for the success of every measure which may tend to promote the o-eneral 
interests of our country, 

I am, &c. &c. 

To Alex. Hamilton, Esq. 



72 

Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 

Quantity, two hundred acres : Value, thirty-two hundred dollars. — Two hundred 
acres being nearly the average quantity of the farms in this quarter; I have taken that 
as the most convenient portion from which to form the required estimates. 

Arable Land, one hundred and twenty-five acres. — The arable land, divided into 
five fields, of twenty-five acres each, makes in the whole one hundred and twenty-five 
acres. 

Pasture, fifty acres. — The course of cropping pursued here requiring three fields 
to be under tillage, two of course will be left for pasture, which make fifty acres. 

Orchard, &c. ten acres. — Orchard, garden, house, and barn, yards, lanes, &.C.; 
supposed to occupy ten acres. 

Meadow, fifteen acres. — The natural meadows in this part of the country being 
few, yet as every farmer finds means for allotting some portion of his land for that 
use, suppose the nearest average fifteen acres. 

Woodland, fifty acres. — Timber being an article indispensably necessary for fuel, 
fencing, building, &c. have allowed fifty acres for that use. 

Wheat, two hundred bushels, at ninety cents per bushel, is one hundred and 
eighty dollars. — One of the aforesaid fields is allotted, in rotation, for wheat and rye; 
suppose twenty thereof to be sown with wheat, will yield, commimibus annis, ten 
bushels per acre ; for although in seasons, on well improved grounds, twenty, thirty, 
and even thirty-five bushels may be produced from the acre ; yet from the many 
casualties to which land tillage is exposed, so that in some seasons the best improved 
ground may not produce even five bushels; I have, from my own observation, and 
that of an intelligent neighbouring farmer, taken the above as the nearest supposed 
medium, making two hundred bushels ; which, at ninety cents per bushel, is one 
hundred and eighty dollars. 

Rye, fifty bushels, at sixty cents per bushel, thirty dollars. — Rye likewise, ten 
bushels to the axire; the remainder of the field, being five acres, will yield fifty 
bushels, which, at sixty cents per bushel, make thirty dollars. — The field on which 
the wheat and rye is sowed, is generally also put in with grass, and lays for pasture 
two years. 



73 

Corn, three hundred bushels, at forty cents, one Inindred and twenty dollars. — One 
field is generally allotted to Indian corn and buck-wheat, in the same proportion with, 
wheat and rye; the twenty acres of corn will average fifteen bushels per acre, 
making in the whole three hundred bushels, at forty cents per bushel, is one hundred 
and twenty dollars. 

Buck-wheat, seventy-five bushels at thirty cents, is twenty-two dollars and fifty 
cents. — This grain is so precarious in its growth, that it is extremely difficult to form 
an estimate of its general produce ; but suppose fifteen bushels per acre,, which, from 
five acres, being the remainder of that field occupied by the corn, will be seventy- 
five bushels, valued at thirty cents per bushel, is twenty-two dollars fifty cents. 

Barley. — So little of this grain is raised here, that I did not think it worth notice. 

Oats, one hundred bushels at twenty cents per bushel, twenty dollars. — By the 
course of cropping commonly used here, this grain is sowed, for the sake of ease and 
convenience to the farmer, upon some part of the fallow intended for wheat, to which 
it generally proves injurious, therefore is not largely propagated: I have only allotted 
five acres, which Mill average twenty bushels per acre, making the whole one hun- 
dred bushels, at twenty cents per bushel, is twenty dollars. 

Flax and Seed, thirty dollars. — This is also generally raised on part of the fallow ; 
suppose two, which, on an average, may yield two hundred and fifty pounds of swin- 
gled flax, and twelve bushels of seed, which, both together, may be worth thirty dollars. 

Apples and Cider, thirty dollars. — Every farm has more or less of orcharding ; 
eight acres allowed for that use, the product whereof, in apples and cider, cannot be 
worth less than thirty dollars. 

Hay, twenty tons: value, one hundred and twenty dollars. — Although fifteen 
acres only are allotted for meadow, which, probably, on an average, will not yield 
more than that number of tons, yet as the farmers, by sowing grass-seeds on their 
lands, improved with dung, plaster of Paris, &c. annually mow more or less of those, 
I have allowed twenty tons, worth six dollars each, makes one hundred and twenty 
dollars. 

Cattle, annual product, seventy dollars. — I suppose a farm of two hundred acres 
will, on an average, support twelve head of cattle ; of those, I suppose five milk 

19 



74 

cows, which A\-ill each yield per annum, one calf, two of them to be raised and three 
fatted ; the latter ^^■ortll six dollars. Five milk cows will produce fifteen pounds of 
butter per month each, for seven months, which makes in the whole 525lbs. at nine 
cents per lb. makes forty-seven dollars twenty-five cents ; five months allowed for 
theix being farrow, or fatting the calves. Two calves annually raised, affords oppor- 
tunity for disposing of that number of cattle annually either in beef or milk cows, 
which, being worth sixteen dollars each, makes thirty-two dollars; making in the 
whole seventy-nine dollars twenty-five cents. Deduct, for accidents, &c. nine dol- 
lars twenty-five cents, leaves an annual product of seventy dollars. 

Horses. — Whatever these may produce, must be considered as included in the 
general product of the farm, for the cultivation of which they are made by the pro- 
pagation of the animal, unless it be in the most interior parts of the country, where 
no market can be procured for grain, &c. 

Sheep, annual product, twenty -eight dollars. — Twenty store sheep may be con- 
veniently kept on a two hundred acre farm ; their wool will average forty pounds 
per year, worth twenty-three cents per pound, which makes ten dollars; their 
increase in lambs, twelve; this number being to be di,sposed of annually, either in 
lambs or fatted mutton, they may be worth IJ dollars each; makes eighteen dollars. 
Thus the whole annual product on sheep will be twenty-eight dollars. 

Hogs, annual product, eighty dollars.— Ten hogs may be considered as the average 
number raised annually on a two hundred acre farm; weighing two hundred net 
pounds each, making two thousand pounds at four cents per pound ; the value of the 
annual product will be eighty dollars. 

Poultry, annual product, ten dollars. — Suppose, on an average, ten dozen may be 
raised, worth one dollar per dozen ; their product will be ten dollars. 

Wood consumed in fuel, twenty-five cords. — Allowing one kitchen fire, which burns 
more or less the whole year, and one other fire during the winter, for the convenience 
of the family; I suppose the two fires will consume twenty -five cords. 

Consumed by cattle, horses, sheep, hogs and poultry: Indian corn, two hundred 
bushels; rye, 25 ditto; buckwheat, 40 ditto; potatoes, 75 ditto; hay, twenty tons. 

The family consumption may be estimated by what will support nine persons, viz. 



75 

the man, his wife, and three children; one man hired by the year, one bound boy, 
and one girl; the extra hiring of hands in harvest, and hay-making; spinsters, visi- 
tors, &c. equal to the maintenance of one person more during the year. 

Tax paid annually for defraying the expenses of the country, supporting the poor, 
and repairing the roads, will average about eight dollars. 



Pittsburgh, October 27, 1791. 
Sir, 

Herewith I return your form, filled as well as I am able at present. I beg leave 
to mention, that in a new country like this, where farming is not reduced to system, 
it is difficvdt to form an estimate as you wish. Our farms are generally new; the 
oldest not exceeding twenty years. 

In order to give you as good an idea as possible, I have divided them into three 
classes, annexing the just value of each class; and have averaged the product. I 
believe this rule would apply as equally here as any other. I have extended my 
inquiries to two or three different farms of each class. 

Should the method Avhich I have adopted, not answer your intention, or be too 
inexplicit, I will, with the greatest pleasure, make any further inquiries that you may 
think necessary. 

I have the honour to be. Sir, 

With much respect. 

Your obedient humble servant. 
To Alexander Hai\iilton, Es([. 

VALUE OF FARM. 

Lands divided into three classes. 
First class, at 255. per acre. 
Second class at 15s. per acre. 
Third class at IO5. per acre. 
Averaged value, I65. 8c^. 



KINDS 


OF 


LAND. 




Arable land, 




. . 47 


aci'es. 


Pasture land. 




. . 10 


(1 


Meadow, 




. . 7 


" 


Woodland, . 




. . 250 


" 



76 



ANNUAL PRODUCT. 




(JUANTITT CON- 
SUMED UY CATTLE 

AND POULTRY. 


5. 


PRICES 
d. 




Wheat, . 


150 bushels. 


— bushels. 


3 


9 bushel 


Rye, 


150 


" 


30 


" 


2 


6 


<( 


Corn, 


250 


u 


200 


" 


2 





(( 


Oats, 


IGO 


u 


. 60 


" 


1 


G 


" 


Barley, 


50 


" 






3 


9 


(1 


Buckwheat, 


50 


u 






1 


6 


" 


Potatoes, . 


200 


" 


160 


" 


1 


10 


" 



Other roots and vegetables in value. 

Black cattle, 4 

Horses, . 2 

Sheep, . 6 

Hogs, .15 

Poultry, . 6 dozen. 

Tobacco, a small quantity in own 

consumption. 
Cords of wood, consumed in fuel, 

without number. 
Hay, . . 8 tons. 



6, tons. 505. per ton. 



Wye, (Eastern Shore of Maryland,) Nov. 11, 1791. 
Dear Sir, 

The method in which I proceeded on the inquiry was this : in conversations 
with farmers, I expressed a wish to be informed of several particulars in rural con- 
cerns, that seemed to me to have been too little thought of by husbandmen. On 
explaining my meaning, they approved of the design, and promised to recollect what 



77 

they could of those matters, and tliat tliey would communicate the result to me. 
Having thus prepared them, I some time after delivered to them printed papers, con- 
taining the particulars of my inquiries, and requested they would fill up the blanks 
in those papers. The last step was to wait on them at their houses. 

The information contained in the paper which I have now the hoaour to deliver to 
you, is all that could be obtained. The farmers received the papers with hearty 
intentions to fill up the blanks, without conceiving there was any difficulty in the 
execution; yet the only reason of there not being other answers to the questions, is 
solely from the difficulty, to them the impossibility, of fulfilling their design and 
promise ; for they kept no minutes, and their attention to the bulk of the articles, 
as they acknowledged with concern, had been trifling. On this occasion I had the 
pleasure to hear several of the farmers declare, that being, by the inquiry, led to 
think on the numerous particulars in the paper, they had determined in future to 
make some account of them, as they conceive it will be considerably advantageous 
to them. 

The little introduction to the piece was meant to soften it, from an appearance it 
might have of an inventory of their effects ; and I think that if the value of the 
things, especially of the land, can be omitted, the quantities Avould be more readily, 
if not also in more numerous instances, obtained; and there Avould be less danger of 
a jealousy, that the inquiry is meant for political purposes. In one instance only, 
there appeared a suspicion that such a use was intended. It Avas in the last conver- 
sation I had on the subject with some farming gentlemen. "It may be said, by some 
people, that Mr. B. is a politician, and* that he wants to know the value of country 
estates, that they may be taxed." 

The value of lands, as reported by the proprietors, probably is less to be depended 
on, than if it was collected from conversations with people from the several States. 
Ask any man what his land would sell for, or is worth, he cannot find a moderate rate. 

•20 



78 

The land, in the present case, is fully worth the sum it is rated at; but yet, in my 
opinion, it could not now be sold, on time, for that price. 

No article is so slow of sale as land, at this time. 

I have the honour to be &c. 

The Hon. Mr. Hamilton. 



The following account is of a farm in Talbot county, (state of Maryland,) of mid- 
dling goodness, with the medium produce of its last four years crops. It contains 
about four hundred and fifty acres, of which one hundred and eighty are woodland, 
two hundred and seventy arable, and of this one hundred and ten are pasture. The 
value of the whole, as it might be expected to sell on time, according to present 
opinion, is 2500/. (562/. at 45. 6d.) 

Its produce, in common, the medium of four years, follows : 



QUANTITY. 


VALUE. 


Wheat .... ... . 700 


£263 


Rye 





Corn . ' . . 450 


67 


Oats . . . . . . . . 





Barley 





Buck-wheat 





Potatoes, with fruit, other roots and vegetables? in value 


50 


Tobacco 5000 

• 


50 


Wood for fuel (cords) . . ^ . . . 160 


20 


Hay (tons) 5 


25 


Pulse (peas, &c.) 





Hemp 






QUANTITY. 


VALUE. 


100 


2 10 


200 


10 


400 


20 









120 




250 




75 




60 


400 






79 



Flax 

Wool 

Butter 

Cotton, cheese, fruit ..... 

Cattle thirty-five, annually raised . 
Horses twenty-five, colts do. do. . . . 
Sheep eighty, lambs do. do. .... 
Hogs, annually killed or sold .... 
Poultry per year, dunghill . . , . , 
Turkies one hundred, ducks ninety. 

The quantities and values are generally in round numbers, which has a suspicious 
appearance. But the worthy farmer, after considering well each article, stated them 
partly from memory, partly from notes, or scraps of paper, and thought it best to omit 
fractional quantities and sams, as he had not perfect minutes. It is the account of an 
honest candid man, who would not have given it if he had not believed it to be gene- 
rally just. 



MR. PETERS TO COL. HAMILTON. 

Belmont, (six miles from Philadelphia,) 27th August, 1791. 
Dear Sir, 

I send you the best answers to your inquiries on the agricultural subject, I can 
at present think of I thought it best to draw it up in the form of an account, though 
I have filled up the columns you sent me. The manner I have pursued, will fur- 
nish you with every thing you require, though much of it may be useless to you, and 
inapplicable, perhaps, to your immediate object. You will perceive the miserable 
state of agriculture in the part of the county I live in. It is bad enough every where, 
but the fertility of soil in lands recently cleared, or naturally better, and readier 



80 

access to manure, give advantages to farmers more happily seated. The account will 
explain the principles I went on, and, lest my calculation should be too conjectural, 
I took four similar farms I well knew, which are situated not far from each other, but 
far enough to give a general view of the state of the country. I consulted the most 
intelligent of their owners, men who happened to be the best informed on the subject 
of any of my neighbours. I averaged the actual produce in a year, the best of four 
years' cultivation, in all of them. So that this, added to my own experience, con- 
vinces me that I am not far wrong in any particular. I omitted my own farm, 
because it far exceeds the common produce of others; and though my expenses are 
greater, they are amply compensated by the difference of product; in all instances 
double, in many treble, and in some quadruple. Yet, with all this, I find farming 
but a bad trade, when capital is calculated upon. There are few men of any talents, 
Avho cannot employ themselves in any other business to greater advantage. When I 
consider the actual profit of a farm, I am more astonished at the injustice and folly of 
those who have burdened the land with such heavy impositions. It is true, farmers 
are never on velvet, for they pay their share of imperceptible taxes. Yet these taxes 
are also borne by those whose property is latent, and cannot therefore be directly 
touched ; and the owners of this kind of property are frequently the greatest con- 
sumers. But it is useless to trouble you with such observations. Nor will it be of 
service to enter into speculations, many of which are confirmed by successful experi- 
ence, to show how the agriculture of this country'may be improved. These improve- 
ments depend not directly on government; iiltimately they have no inconsiderable 
relation to it: but farmers can only come in for their share of beneficial effects, flow- 
ing from good general systems. I can truly say, they ought to hope every thing in 
this view of the subject; and I am happy to be convinced that the spirit of improve- 
ment is rising rapidly among them. It has been a point of patriotism with me for 
many years past, to promote this spirit; and having set out with moderate expecta- 
tions, I have not been without some gratifications. 

I am, &.C. 

R. PETERS. 
A. 11aimii,ion, KiS({. 



81 

DR. FARM. 

£ S. d. 
To annual interest on capital, two hundred acres, at £8 per acre, 

1600/. at six per cent. . . . . . 96 

STOCK AJVD IMPLEMENTS. 

Four horses, at 15/. each .... £60 

Eight cows, at 6/. each .... 48 

Cart, wagon, ploughs, harness, geers, &c. . . 60 

Twelve swine ...... 12 

£180 
On the above ISO/. I only charge six per cent. . . 10 16 

£106 16 

Though the annual loss in some articles is twenty per cent., and 
in none less than ten, decrease in value by age in horses and 
cattle, accidents, wear and tear, are the causes, yet I have made 
no account of annual losses by wear of buildings, or accidents 
to stock. 
Annual Expenditures, beside the personal labour of the farmer 

and family, and the produce and cash used for their support. 
One hired man and his maintenance . . . 37 10 

Extra wages at hay and harvest, and expenses 10 

Days hire for occasional business . . . 5 

Smith's bill . . . . . ..300 

All the hay consumed by stock . . . . 90 

Rye, thirty bushels, at As. Gd. . . . . . 6 15 

Indian corn, one hundred bushels, at 3a'. . . . 15 

Buckwheat, one hundred bushels, at 2a-. 6d. . 12 10 

Potatoes, eighty bushels, aX Is. 6d. . . . 6 

Firewood, twenty cords, at 5i'. . . . .500 

Seed — Wheat, fifteen bushels, at 7s. 6d. Rye, five bushels, at 45. 6d. 6 15 

21 



82 



Potatoes, ten bushels, at Is. Gd. 
Indian corn and b\ick-wheat, 



£ s. d. 

18 

1 10 

£199 16 



Direct taxes of various descriptions have in some years been 20/. now 

perliaps . . . . . . . . 15 

£321 12 

CONTRA, OR. 



By one hundred and thirty bushels wheat, at 75. 6d. . 

Fifty bushels rye, at 45. Gd. . . 

One hundred and eighty bushels Indian corn, at 35. 

Thirty bushels oats, at 25. Gd. . 

One hundred and seventy-five bushels buck-wheat, at 25. Gd. 

One hundred bushels potatoes, I5. Gd. 

Roots and other vegetables 

Two cattle raised annually .... 

One horse, worth 15/. at three years old 

Eight lambs, at IO5. each .... 

Wool of twelve sheep, thirty-six pounds at 25. ' . 

Pork, fourteen hundred pounds at 3cZ. 

Poultry, in value ...... 

Hay, thirty tons, at 3/. 

Dairy. — Eight cows. 

Six calves, at 2O5. each ..... 
(Men fallow, two calves raised.) 

Butter, eight hundred and thirty-two pounds, at I5. 3d. 
Cheese, one hundred pounds at Gd. . 



£ 5. 


d. 




48 15 







11 5 







27 







3 15 







21 17 


6 




7 10 







6 









-£126 


2 6 


4 







5 







4 







3 12 







17 10 







3 







90 









-£127 


2 



6 



52 
2 10 



£60 10 



83 

As to offal, milk, &c. except a small part for the family, it is 
consumed by the calves and pigs, and accounted in their value. 
Flax, one hundred and fifty pounds at Id. 
Deduct one-half for expenses of breaking and hackling, 

Add four bushels seed, at 55. 



7 6 
3 9 



3 9 





£3 3 9 



£316 18 3 
Balance against farm, . . 4 13 9 

£321 12 

N. B. About eight bushels of wheat per acre, is a full allowance for the better 
kind of farms in these parts. Some do not yield six; and eight out of ten do not 
come up to eight bushels per acre. The farms I have selected, sow from sixteen to 
twenty acres, winter grain. The average of active crops is, however, less than eight 
bushels to the acre. 



Value of F.vrim. — Two hundred acres, at 1600/. Pennsylvania currency. 



KINDS OF LAND. 

Arable and pasture, 152 acres. 
Meadow, . 18 " 

Woodland, . 30 " 

ANNUAL PRODUCT. 

Wheat, . 130 bushls. 

Rye, . 50 " 

Oats, . 30 " 

Indian corn, . 180 " 
Barley. 

Buck- wheat, . 175 " 

Potatoes, . 100 " 
Other roots and vegetables, in 
value, 6/. 



ANNUAL PRODUCT. 

Cattle, increase, . 2 

Horses, " . 1 

Sheep, " .8 

Hogs (weight,) 14001b. 

Poultry, in value, 3/. 

Tobacco. 

Cords of wood consumed 

for fuel, . 20 

Hay (tons), . 30 

Dairy (butter and calves, 

6 calves) . 700 

Flax, 1501b. 



84 



Belmont, (near Philadelphia,) June 20, 1792. 
Sir, 

I shall be happy if I can assist in solving Mr. Young's queries ; but the time 
will not admit either of accuracy, or the combinations necessary to form the average 
of labour, building, or improvement, applicable to the State at large. From Mr. 
Young's calculations, formed I presume, upon communications from you, I am sur- 
prised to find that the prices of labour, and quantity of product, are, in a great 
degree, similar to those of this State, though you seem to have confined yourself to 
Virginia, and Maryland. I mean the labour and wages of hirelings ; for as to slaves 
I have but a very imperfect, and you a perfect knowledge, of what concerns their 
value, expense and labour. 

1st. Our wages for hirelings, by the day, are commonly 2s. in winter, and 25. 6d. 
nine months in the year, for common days-work on a farm, and every thing found, 
as to eating and drinking. The same man will hire, and find himself, at 35. and 35. 
6d. per day; for a reaper 35. to 35. 9d. and found; and the same for cutting grass; 
reaping, by the acre, I have never had done under 55. but the price is generally 75. 6d. 
the labourers finding themselves. Neither reaper nor mower will, on an average, do 
more than three-fourths of an acre. Mowers, per day, are allowed here a pint of 
rum, or other spirits, a vile and unnecessary practice. Reapers have as much as 
they choose, perhaps three half-pints per day ; but this practice is yearly diminishing. 
When I say that a reaper or mower will do three-fourths of an acre, I mean of a 
common crop; for in heavy grain, or grass, such as a good English crop, no labourer 
here will reap or mow above half an acre. As to mowing, or what we call cradling 
grain, we pay a man 55. to 65. per day, and found ; and the day's work about the 
same with Mr. Young's .statement, viz. two or two acres and a half per day. Mowing 
per acre 55. to 65. and a pint of rum. Labourers find themselves food. 

2d. The hire of a waggon, four horses, and driver, from 155. to 2O5. per day. 

3d. The yearly hire of a good labourer in Pennsylvania I think sixty dollars, or 22/. 
IO5. currency, and found, clothing excepted. 



85 

4th. As to the quantum of labour to be commanded for pay, I know not how to 
answer. Many who have small farms, either on rent, or their own property, can 
spare a portion of their time to assist their neighbours for hire. The class of people 
merely labourers is not very numerous, and by no means stationary or collected. 
The independent situation they can place themselves in, by removing to the frontiers, 
is the cause of the scarcity of labourers in the settled parts of the State. Nor is the 
demand so regular as to detain unconnected labourers in any spot. Whether the 
considerable improvements we are about undertaking, by roads and canals, will 
operate so as to attract labourers from other States, or from Europe, in hopes of con- 
stant employment, is yet problematical. If these works employ none but our own 
people, the price will increase on the farmers. 

There is no doubt but that the rates of labour are, and will, for a long time, con- 
tinue to be higher than they are in England. Our people live better than those of 
the same rank in life in any part of the world. The employer pays for the habits of 
the hireling, who not only eats and drinks well, when provided for, in addition to his 
wages, but out of his wages must (if he has one) provide for his family, according to 
the custom of the country. Even an English labourer, who lives better than one 
in any part of Europe, would be astonished at the fare of one in America. I do not 
believe Mr. Young much mistaken, when he says that the rate is, comparatively, 
one hundred per cent, higher than in England, and the habits of living are as much 
the cause of it, as the easiness of the passage over the mountains. I am not dis- 
pleased, as a citizen, at this circumstance ; though, as a farmer, it is against my 
profit. Some things might be retrenched, but I am happy when I know that our 
common people are better fed and clothed than in any other part of the M^orld. 

5th. The prices of lands are so extremely various, that there is no fixino- an 
average. The situation and improvement always add to value. Knowino- so little 
as our farmers do, of the means of renovating lands, the longer they are cleared the 
less valuable, for the most part, they are. I gave to Colonel Hamilton an exact 
account of the debtor and creditor of four farms, in my neighbourhood, taken from 

22 



86 

the knowledge I have of llie general circumstances of this part of the country. The 
result is A^ery unfavourable to the characters of our farmers. Be pleased to ask 
Colonel Hamilton for it, as I have not a copy. I believe Colonel Hamilton, vi^ho in 
some project he had, sent for information to all quarters, could most easily give satis- 
faction on this point. Mr. Young does not know that, in parts where there are no 
slaves, the farmer and his family do the greater portion of the work of their farms 
Avithin themselves. This is the reason why they can get forward and live well. If 
calculations were made of every thing being hired, few farms in Pennsylvania Avould 
clear a farthing. A man here saves money by a crop of ten bushels, and in England 
he would perish under it. There he rents and hires; here, for the most part, the 
farm is his own, and he hires little, or none at all. 

The products of wheat can be all sold. 

Barley not in great quantities ; our people not being as fond as they ought to be of 
beer. 

Rye may increase in demand by domestic distillation ; at present it is no great 
object. - 

Butter, fluctuating, but all may be sold now produced. 

Beef, a good article; and, when we know better how to cure it for exportation, will 
increase in demand. 

Mutton, no sale for any great quantities. For some time hence this will not be a 
great sheep country ; the dryness of our seasons burns up the pasture for a great part 
of the year ; we keep too many dogs, who destroy them ; and our country is much 
intersected Avith mountains, inhabited by wolves, Avhich cannot be extirpated. It is a 
profitable article, so far as you can extend it, but no great capital can be employed in 
it; and, if the business was more extensively carried on, the profit Avould be reduced 



87 

to nothing. Our long winters are inimical to sheep; tliey render the keeping expen- 
sive, and subject the animal to numberless disorders. We can have no succulent or 
green forage ; turnips are out of the question ; our snows and severe weather destroy 
or cover them; nor is their culture certain. I have tried the English sheep, which 
soon degenerate, and stand the climate biit badly. As to fleece, it is but scant, three 
pounds per sheep being rather an over calculation. Wool is now in some demand, 
but I have known it unsaleable. I hope manufactures will continue to increase the 
demand; but the prospect of this is distant, Mr. Young's calculation upon waste 
land, might be well enough, if the circumstances before stated, as to sheep, did not 
forbid our going extensively into them. Sheep have most enemies where there could 
be most range for them; and they require care as well as range. I know none who 
have tried the sheep business that have succeeded. Folding is very well, but it 
requires labour; and the sheep, crowded together here, have often perished. I can- 
not ascertain how many an acre will support ; for none are kept, within my know- 
ledge, but in small numbers, and as a variety in a farmer's stock. They are close 
feeders, and destroy pasture prodigiously. 

Excuse me. Sir, for this hasty and imperfect sketch ; I should have gone more 
deeply into the subject had the time you allot permitted. 

Unless one could find, as it is in England, the business carried on in different 
branches, systematically, it is difficult to make calculations, or even observations, 
generally applicable. Few people here do all their business by hiring, and some 
scarcely hire at all. The race of tenantry is miserable indeed. 

I am, with the greatest respect, 

Your obedient servant, 

RICHARD PETERS. 

P. S. Should you think of any particular point, and would be pleased to mention 
it, I will pay particular attention to it. Mr. Young's letter would require a very 
extended discussion. 



88 

Philadelphia, October 20, 1792. 
Sir, 

I must beg your acceptance of my best thanks for the book that accompanied 
your polite letter of the 9th of June, which came duly to my hands. 

I presume you have long before this received my letter, vi^hich was committed to 
the care of Mr. Pinckney, our Minister at the Court of Great Britain, and shall be 
very glad if the contents of it afforded you the information which it was intended to 
communicate ; for I am persuaded, that I need not repeat to you, how sincerely I wish 
success to those laudable exertions which you are making to promote the important 
in^terest of agriculture, and the cause of humanity. 

With very great esteem, I am, Sir, 

Your most obedient servant, 

G. WASHINGTON. 
Arthur Young, Esq. 



Philadelphia, December 2, 1792. 
Sir, 

1 must begin this letter with an apology; no apology ought to be so satisfactory 
as the truth, and the truth is, that not receiving the account of the taxes of a Virginia 
estate, for which I had written, (before I left this city, during the recess of Congress,) 
as mentioned in my letter to you of the 18th of June, the promise I then made of 
forwarding it to you in my next, had escaped me altogether, until I was reminded of 
it lately, by a circumstance too trivial to mention. 

A copy of the account is now annexed. The name of the proprieior of the estate 
is not inserted, but on the authenticity of it you may rely. That you may under- 
stand the principles on which the land-tax in Virginia is founded, it will be necessary 
to inform you, that by a law of that State, the inhabitants of it are thrown into 
districts — say parishes ; in each of which, or for two, or more of them united, com- 



89 

missiouers are appointed to assess the value of each man's land, that lies within it; 
on which a certain per centum is uniformly paid. 

No negroes under twelve years of age are taxed, nor are any under sixteen sub- 
jected to the payment of county or parish levies. Horses, at present, are the only 
species of stock in that State which pays a tax. Carriages were, when I left Vir- 
ginia, and I believe still are, subject to a tax by the wheel. It A^as then, if I recollect 
rightly, about five dollars each wheel; but whether it is more or less now, or whether 
there be any at all, is more than I am able with certainty to inform you. 
With very great esteem and regard, 

I am. Sir, your most obedient, 

And much obliged servant, 

G. WASHINGTON. 
Arthur Young, Esq. 



DR. FOR PUBLIC TAXES— FOR COUNTY AND PARISH LEVIES. 

In Truro Parish, 1792. 
Tax on G320 acres of land, for 1791 . 
" 114 negroes, at 25. 6^ . 
" 87 horses at 6c?. . 

" 107 county and parish levies, at 29lbs. of 

tobacco each, . . 3013 

Fairfax Parish (adjoining). 
Tax on 3420 acres of land .... 

" 24 negroes, at 2s. 6d. . . . . 

" 15 horses, at 6c?. 

" 23 county and parish levies, at 29lbs. of 

tobacco each . . 567 



£. 


s. 


d. 


13 


8 


7 


14 


5 





2 


3 


6 



6 


6 


2 


3 











7 


6 



3670 £39 10 10 

3670lbs. tobacco, at 155. per cwt. . . 27 10 6 

Total— (Dollars, at 65.) £67 "~1 4 
Note. — There ought to have been in the above account, a discrimination in the 

23 



00 

change for county and parisli levies. The first is for Iniikling and repairing court- 
houses, gaols, &c. criminal processes, &c. the latter is for the support of the poor, 
and other parochial charges. 



EXTRACTS FROM SOME REJIARKS SENT TO GENERAL WASHINGTON ON THE PRECEDING ACCOUNTS. 

A reaper, 35. to 35. 9d. a day, and does three-fourths of an acre ; say 25. 2d. ster- 
ling, and board; which, with us, is called 16^. If a farmer boards his men with his 
bailiff, he pays in that proportion : this is lO^d. a day; but the better fare of harvest 
will make it at least I5. 6c?. or 3s. 8d. for three-fourths of an acre — 4s. lO^d. per acre. 
We have no part of England in which this is done so cheaply. It rises from 5s. to 
2O5. per acre ; with you, the same expense mows an acre, viz. 35. 8d. This, on the 
contrary, is dearer than with us, if for grass; and, for corn, a man mows two or two 
and a half acres a day. 

The next minute is a waggon, four horses, and (I suppose a man) 15s. or IO5. ster- 
ling. This is nearly the price with us all the year, except in very busy seasons, 
when not to be had at all. 

In Maryland, wages 20^. and all found but clothes; sterling, 12/.; with us, the 
head man 10/.; the rest 8/. 

On the Fluvanna and Rivanna, a negro 9/. and every thing found : and in a former 
letter, all labour with slaves. Hence quere — Is the labour noted in these minutes, 
accidental, and not to be commanded in any amount; or is it the standard employ- 
ment of the State? Reckoning a negro at 50/. and estimating his life in any ratio, 
he must surely be cent, per cent, dearer than the labour of England. Governor 
Glen, in his description of South Carolina, (one of the best accounts of a country I 
have met with) says, that a slave can manage two acres of indigo, or six of Indian 



91 

corn: this must be less than the half of what our labourers do, "who will set out and 
clean effectually half an acre of turnips every day, for the first hoeing; and from 
three-fourths to one acre the second. 

I see no reason to calculate it less than one hundred per cent, higher than in Eng- 
land ; and the general information I have at various times had from other persons, 
seems to confirm the idea: no wonder, while every man, by going over the mountains, 
can have land for himself 

The next difficulty is in respect of the purchase of land, which in the notes is every 
where per acre, very properly (I suppose the statute English acre, or it would have 
been mentioned to the contrary); but it is not mentioned what State the lands are in, 
which are thus valued : whether additions to properties already built and improved, 
or the improvements themselves, including the buildings, fences, &c. In the instan- 
ces of mountain-land, the expressions seem to indicate waste land, unbuilt, and uiun- 
clo.sed. The prices converted to sterling, appear to be nearly as follows : 



ABOVE 


405. 


£10 








4 


1 





2 


8 





3 








4 


16 





o 


2 





3 


15 





3 


2 





2 


4 





3 








') £38 


8 






Average, 3 16 9 



BELOW 


405. 


£ 1 1 





15 





9 





16 





1 16 





15 


6 


1 11 





15 


6 


1 2 





1 2 


6 


1 17 


6 


1 11 





1 2 





1 2 


6 



92 

ABOVE 4U.S-. ■ BKLOW 40s. 

12 2 17 6 

14 

2) 4 18 11 19 

General average £2 95 17)£18170 

Average £1 2 2 
Which may be thus contrasted with Suffolk, the rent of which is, on an average, 
nearly that of England. Rent 125. an acre, at twenty-eight years purchase, or 16/. 16s. 

It is impossible to compare the soils without seeing them ; but from various cir- 
cumstances touched o^^ in the letters, I am inclined to think American land as good 
as ours in Suffolk at least. The spontaneous growth of white clover is, with us, a 
sure criterion of good land ; we have none of it in Suffolk, or at least very little; w-hen 
our land is worn out by bad management, and left, it runs to what is called water- 
grass, the Agrostis stolonifera, one of the worst seeds any country can be plagued 
with. American products, it is true, are shocking, and mark a management which, 
thank God, we know nothing of Such crops would not be found in any part of this 
kingdom. The observation, that in America farmers look to labour much more than 
to land, is new to me; but it is a calculation which I cannot understand, for, exactly 
in proportion to the dearness of labour, is the necessity of having good crops : a bad 
one, in every thing but threshing, costs as much in labour as a good one. Good crops 
are not gained by operose systems so well, or so surely, as by reposing the soil under 
grass, and supporting great stocks of cattle and sheep. Such products as you describe, 
with dear labour, are absolutely inexplicable. A very severe mildew has been known 
to damage wheat so much in England, that the crop, being calculated at seven or 
eight bushels an acre, in cheap times, has been mown and carted to the farm yard for 
the hogs to eat it, and make dung. With so small a crop the quality is sure to be 
bad, if the soil is naturally good. 

I have stated the price of land in Suffolk at^l6/. IBs.; but this price includes build- 
ings and improvements; for instance, suppose three hundred acres in one farm: 



93 

House . . . . . £600 

Barns 50o 

Stable ..... 200 

Cow-house . . . . .100 

Styes, &c. ..... 50 

Cart-lodge . . . . .50 

Gates and fences, and road, . . . 370 

£1870 
This, I believe moderate; however, let us call it only 6/. per acre, 1800^. it reduces 
the price of land to 10/. I65. There are various improvements besides, such as irri- 
gation, marling, draining; but we will drop them at present. 

It should seem that in Virginia, taxes may be calculated m this manner, perhaps 
not with accuracy. 

s. d. 
75. 6c?. on 100/. suppose 50 acres; this is about . . 2 

Negro tax may be . . . . .01 

Horse tax, 6d . . . . . 0' 

Parish, and county levies 75. 6d. a head, 20 would be 7/. 10s. 
perhaps per acre ..... 06 

currency 9i 

per acre — sterling say . 7d. 

The price of products contrasted with Suffolk : 



Wheat per bushel, average 

Rye . 

Barley .... 

Butter 

Beef 

Mutton ... 

24 



lME 


RICA. 


SUFFOLK. 


s. 


d. 


s. d. 


3 





5 


1 


9 


3 


1 


10 


2 6 





5i 


8i 





2^ 


4i 




7 


3| 
6 


5 
11 



94 

By means ol' the enormous demand ol' London, the three cattle products may be 
sold in any quantities produced, without the least apprehension of wanting a market, 
and those of corn at these rates also. If five hundred stone of beef on a farm, at two 
and one fourth, is made ten thousand stone, can you sell it readily? the West Indies 
considered, this is probably the case. Mutton is an article of infinitely greater impor- 
tance, but that not being barrelled, probably could not be sold. 

You have the unacountable circumstance, I see, as well as England, of mutton 
being dearer than beef: horses, not oxen, being almost universal with us, makes it yet 
more strange. I know, from experiments made with considerable care, that if they 
were at the same price, the farmer would have more profit by producing mutton than 
by producing beef; yet is mutton by many per cent, higher priced! but sheep give 
you another profit in their wool, and a third in their fold. The former with us is 
infamously depressed in price, but not in America, for your wool at Is. per pound is 
thirty-three per cent, higher than it would sell for in England. Why then surely 
you should raise those products that sell well? and wool sells better (of course in any 
quantity) than any thing else you have. With mutton at 3d. per pound, and wool at 
Is. there can be no comparison between sheep and any other application of land. But 
there must be a market for mutton ; and to effect that, you should get Bakewell's 
breed, which fattens so readily on very good land, that a common application of it is 
salting, to use instead of bacon. The provincial assemblies of France have employed 
smugglers to get (badly chosen) English sheep. Half the kings in Europe have done 
the same, to get Spanish sheep : both very wisely. I hope your American assemblies 
will be equally wise, and take care that the food produced in the State is applied to 
the breeds that will pay best for it. 

We may thus compare England and America, supposing three hundred acres 
bought and farmed by the purchaser : 

ENGLAND. £. S. d. 

Produce of 300 acres, 5 rents, at 125. or 3/. . ... 900 

Deduct £ s. d. 

Land-tax 36'. in the pound, at a 4s. cess on 180/. . . 27 

Rates 45. fid. . . . 40 10 



95 



£ s d 
Tithe 4^. Qd. . . _ 40 10 



3 10 



Roads .... 

Assessed Taxes . . . 3 

£114 10 



£785 10 



Deduct further, 
Labour 



150 



Interest of 5040/. at 5 per cent. . . 252 

Interest 1200/. farmer's capital 



GO 
£462 



£323 10 



Nett ....... 

5/. 35. per cent, on 6240/. 

Repairs supposed the same with both, and therefore omitted. But quere, Mr. Jef- 
ferson's Virginia, p. 258, where he says they are built so badly as to last only fifty 
years : ours last one hundred and fifty years of wocM, and much longer if of brick. 

AMERICA. £, 5. J 

Produce of three hundred acres, supposed the same as in England, but the 

price as 7| to 11 •••... 613 

^^^^^^ £. s. d 

Taxes Id. per acre . . . . _ 8 15 

Labour at cent, per cent, higher than England . . 300 

Interest of 1051/. at 5 per cent, the purchase of 300 acres at 

3^- 165. 9d 52 11 

Interest of 900/. farmer's capital, at 3/. per acre, or 2O5. less 
than England 



45 
£406 6 



Nett 

10/. Us. per cent, on 1951/. 



£ 206 14 



96 

QuERE. — If labour should be reckoned so high as 300/.? But, note that the actual 
labour in America in amount must not be regarded, unless, you take American pro- 
ducts, which are very much Ijelow ours. I have supposed the American land as good, 
and the produce as large as in England ; consequently as much labour. The prices 
sent, of oxen, cows, sheep, &c. justify the lowering the stock of American farms 20s. 
an acre ; but it will not justify it, if they are not as well built, and inclosed as in 
England, which I suppose them to be, estimating the purchase of our land not at 
lOZ. 16s. but at 16/. I65. an acre. I have supposed very good husbandry in England 
at five rents; but then I give America the equal advantage of it, by allowing her the 
same. 

The error, if there is one, I conjecture to be, supposing the whole American farm 
what the Suffolk one must be, all cultivated at a good price per acre ; whereas it is 
obvious that the great profit to be derived from agriculture in America, is to have one 
thousand, fifteen hundred, or two thousand acres of waste adjoining to such a farm ; 
which waste should be, by very simple methods, converted to sheep walk, and so 
made the dunghill for the cultivated land. In such case, the rent of that waste 
would be the interest of the money it would sell for : as the country is peopled, the 
rent so estimated would gradually rise, till at last it would answer no longer to adhere 
to such a destination. The object is very important to convert wood to profit at 
small expense. I have grubbed several acres, the expense 10/. an acre; but the wood 
pays; with labour cent, per cent, higher, and wood of no value, woodland thus 
acquired would be dearer near 5/. per acre than land improved, cultivated, and built, 
in England. 

The return of a sheep in England, weight alive one hundred and fifty pound, may 
be estimated at IO5. besides keeping up or renovating the stock: mutton at 5d. and 
wool at 9d. long or Is. 3d. short {9d. producing more money than I5. 3c?.) In America 
mutton at 3|d and wool at Is. a sheep ought to yield 75. 6d. Suppose one thousand 
acres bought for 1000/. and feeding one thousand sheep only, yielding 7.v. 6^. each, or 
even but 5s. and here is a profit at once arising, such as in England we know nothing 



97 

of: but from all accounts, this is not tlic husbandry, and therefore I suppose a mar- 
ket impracticable. 

England, per cent, on capital, .... 

Ditto, nett profit, ..... 



America, . . . . . . .500 

Ditto, nett, . . . . . 10 11 

£ 15 11 
Team, seed, wear and tear, reckoned to neither of these, will reduce the interest 
on the English capital to about 5| per cent. 
Bradfield-Hall, Jan. 18, 1792. 




Bradfield-Hall, January 15, 1793. 
Is it possible, that the inhabitants of a great continent not new settlers, who 
live only to hunt, to eat, and to drink, can carry on farming and planting as a busi- 
ness, and yet never calculate the profit they make by per centage on their capital ? 
And yet this seems to be the case. 

The farm of two hundred acres in Bucks county, is such as an Englishman would 
not accept; for it carries on the face of the account which I have drawn out (A) a 
dead loss, and not an inconsiderable one; yet the whole labour of a family of five 
persons is thrown away in order to arrive at that loss. 

The Pittsburgh account (B) is so much more profitable that I know not how to 
believe that I understand it rightly; but I have calculated the products named, as 
issuing from the quantity of land noted; consequently there is 115/. from forty-seven 
acres arable, which is more than the double of the Bucks farm. 

25 



98 

The Maryland account (C) seems to be very good land, and to yield well; but no 
note being inserted of expenses, it is impossible to calculate the profits. 

Mr. Jefferson's Virginia calculation comes much nearer to the point; but I can- 
not admit it; he reckons 60/. a year increasing value of negroes, and 156/. a year 
rise in value of land. These articles may be fact in certain circumstances, but they 
will not do for comparisons. In the first place, to have a considerable value invested 
in slaves, is a hazardous capital ; and there is no man in the world who would not 
give 60/ a year on six thousand acres, to be able to change slaves to cows and sheep : 
he cannot otherwise command labour, and therefore must keep them; but the profit 
in any other light than labourers, is inadmissible. As to the rise on lands, it may be 
fair; but taking place equally, perhaps, in Europe, it must not come into the account. 
During the last ten years, land in England has risen one third in value. Correcting 
thus Mr. Jefferson's account, his capital pays eleven per cent, as in (D). There are, 
however, many deductions to be made ; as wear and tear of implements, carriage, 
team, seed, repairs of buildings, white servants, overseers, &c. &c. These ought, as 
I conjecture, to amount to near 200/. a year, which, if so, would reduce the profit in 
the gross to about eight per cent. 

But I have a heavier objection than this, and which bears upon the pith of the 
subject. How can Mr. Jefferson produce annually five thousand bushels of wheat, 
worth 750/. by means of a cattle product, of only 125/.? I do not want to come to 
America, to know that this is simply impo.ssible : at the commencement of a term it 
may do, but how long will it last? This is the management that gives such products, 
as eight and ten bushels an acre. Arable land can yield wheat only by means of cattle 
and sheep ; it is not dung that is wanted so much as a change of products : repose 
under grasses is the soul of management ; and all cleaning and tillage to be given in 
the year that yields green winter food. By such a system, you may produce, by 
means of forty oxen and five hundred sheep, five thousand bushels of wheat ; and if 
you raise the oxen to fifty, and sheep to six hundred, you may have so much more 
wheat ; but it is only by increasing cattle that you can increase wheat permanently. 



99 

125/. from cattle, to 75U/. from wheat, would reduce the finest farm iu the world to a 
caput mortuum; that is to say to ten bushels an acre which must be nearly such. 

Here then opens the part of the subject of my inquiries, where most darkness 
hangs ; the demand for cattle and sheep products. It is the quantity to be sold that 
makes the difficulty. The demand must be boundless, or encouragement will be 
wanting. 

Wolves are named as a motive for not keeping sheep; surely they cannot be serious, 
who urge it. They abound all over Europe: in France and Spain, among the 
greatest floclcs in the world; and no wolf could get into my sheep-houses, or at least 
I may say, that nothing is so easy as to keep him out, even of a yard. Dogs also are 
an enemy: but America surely has laws, as well as we, that make every man 
answerable for the mischief done by his dog. By night, if secure from wolves they 
are secure from dogs ; and by day, shepherds may have loaded fire-arms to kill all 
that approach. While sheep are kept by scores, such objections may hold good ; but 
when by hundreds and thousands, they must vanish. 

In the culture of grass for pasturage, as preparatory to corn, the profit of well 
applying this principle in America, must be very great; there is every advantage of 
soil, and extent of farm, and no drawback but the rate of labour. Pasturage demands 
scai-cely any labour; so that if there is one system that squares more to the circum- 
stances of America (not forgetting the disposition of the land to run to white clover) 
than another, it is to adopt a course of crops that takes grass in very largely. 

Surely the enormous rise in the price of wool in England and Holland, for two 
years past, must affect America, and instigate to an increase in the breed of sheep. 
The freight, when pressed into a smaller compass, is a trifle; and the price is now 
such, that a fleece alone from American lands, without reckoning the carcass at any 
thing, must be more valuable than the proflt on a crop of wheat of eight or ten 
bushels an acre, on all lands that will produce white clover spontaneously. 



KM) 

Suppose on some of the monalaiu-lauds (mountuins are no objection on account of 
wolves, for the Pyrenees are full of both sheep and wolves) which are to be bought 
for 5.S-. to 20s. an acre ; at Pittsburgh, I65. 8d.; at Fluvanna, 20s. Suppose 20s. 
sterling an acre, it is Is. an acre rent; such land, by carrying only one sheep per 
acre, producing wool only five pounds at Is. or 5s. a head; and the mutton to do no 
more than pay for losses, shepherd, &:.c., here is a profit such as corn cannot rival ; 
five rents paid by wool ! The West Indies are, however, too near for salted mutton, 
to want a market ; and if it sold for only Id. per pound, the object on a large scale 
would be important. 

TWO HUNDRED ACRES, BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. (A) 



EXPENSES. 



DOLLAHS. 






DOLLARS. 


200 acres, price 3200 dollars, 




Wheat, 20 acres, 200 bushels, 


180 


interest at five per cent, 


160 


Rye, 5 acres, 


50 bushels, 


30 


CONSUMPTION ON FARM. 




Indian corn. 


20 acres, 300 




Indian corn, . . 80 




bushels, 




120 


Rye, . . .15 




Buck-wheat, 


five acres, 75 




Buck-wheat, . . 13 




bushels, 




22 


Hay, .120 




Oats, 5 acres. 


100 bushels, . 


20 




228 


Flax, 




30 


LABOUR HIRED. 




Cyder, 




30 


Two men, one boy, and one girl, 




Hay, . 


. 


120 


fed; but supposed not, for 




Cattle (12), 




70 


simplicity of calculation. 


350 


Sheep (20), 


. 


28 


Taxes, . 


8 


Hogs, 




80 


- 




Poultry, 




10 



747 



Maintenance of a family of five 

persons. 
Seed for the above. 



Five dollars per acre on 150 
acres. 



740 



101 



314 ACRES, PITTSBURGH. (B) 



EXPEHSES. 



Purchase of 314 acres, at 165. 8d. 2611 
Interest at 5 per cent. 



CONSUMPTION BY CATTLE. 



30 bushels rye, 2s. 6d. 
200 " Indian corn, 2s. 

GO " oats, Is. 6d. 
160 '• potatoes, \s. lOd. 







PRODUCE. 


150 bushel 


5 wheat, at 3^. 9d. 




150 


rye, at 25. Gd. 




150 


Indian corn, 25. 




160 


oats, l5. 6d. 




50 


barley, 35. 9d. 




50 


buck-wheat, I5. Gd. 




200 


potatoes, I5. lOd. 


From 47 acres, 



£. s. d. 

13 

3 15 

10 

4 10 

14 13 
£45 18 



28 



2 6 



18 


10 





25 








12 








9 


7 


6 


3 


15 





18 


6 





£115 


1 


~0 



TALBOT COUNTY, IMARYLAND, 450 ACRES. (C) 



Price, 2500/.; interest at five 
per cent., 



Wheat, 

Corn, 

Potatoes, 

Tobacco, 

Wood, 

Hay, . 



£125 



PRODUCE. 






£263 








. 67 








50 








. 50 








20 








25 









Hemp, 


£ 


10 





Flax, . 


2 


10 





Wool, 


10 








Butter, 


. 20 








Cattle, 


120 








Horses, 


. 250 








Sheep, 


75 








Hogs, . 

On 450 acres. 


. 60 
£1013 







~0 



26 



''X. 



EXPENSES. 



102 

VIRGINIA. (D) 



Interest of 6187/. stock 

in land, and negroes, 

and utensils, &,c. £309 7 6 

Clothes, &c. negroes, 150 

Taxes, (corrected) 30 

£489 7 6 



Wheat, 5000 bushels, £750 
Meat, 5/. a head, 125 

875 
489 
Profit on capital of 

6187/. . . £386 



Or per cent. 
Add 51 



6 4 

5 

£11 4 



Phil.^delphia, June 28th, 1793. 
Dj:ar Sir, 

I should have taken time ere this, to have considered the observations of Mr. 
Young, could I at this place have done it in such a way as would satisfy either him 
or myself. When I wrote the notes of the last year, I had never before thought of 
calculating what were the profits of a capital invested in Virginia agriculture. Yet 
that appeared to be what Mr. Young most desired. Lest, therefore, no other of those 
whom you consulted for him, should attempt such a calculation, I did it; but being 
at such a distance from the country of which I wrote, and having been absent from 
that, and from the subject in consideration, many years, I could only, for my facts, 
recur to my own recollection, weakened by time, and very different applications, and 
I had no means here of correcting my facts. I, therefore, hazarded the calculation, 
rather as an essay of the mode of calculating the profits of a Virginia estate, than as 
an operation which was to be ultimately relied on. When I went last to Virginia, I 
put the press copy of those notes into the hands of the most skilful and successful 
farmer in the part of the country of which I wrote. He omitted to return them to 



i-"" 



103 

me, which adds another impediment, to my resuming the subject liere But indeed, if 
I had them, I could only present the same facts, with some corrections, and some jus- 
tifications of the principles of calculation. This would not, and, ought not, to satisfy 
Mr. Young. When I return home, I shall have time and opportunity of answering 
Mr. Young's inquiries fully. I will first establish the facts, as adapted to the present 
times, and not to those to which I was obliged to recur by recollection, and I will 
make the calculation on rigorous principles. The delay necessary for this, will, 
I hope, be compensated by giving something which no endeavours on my part shall 
be wanting to make worthy of confidence. In the mean time, Mr. Young must not 
pronounce too hastily on the impossibility of an annual production of 750^. worth of 
wheat, coupled with a cattle product of 125^. My object was to state the produce of 
a good farm, under good husbandry, as practised in my part of the country. Manure 
does not enter into this, because we can buy an acre of new land cheaper than we can 
manure an old one. Good husbandry with us, consists in abandoning Indian corn 
and tobacco: tending small grain, some red clover, fallowing, and endeavouring to 
have, while the lands are at rest, a spontaneous cover of white clover. I do not pre- 
sent this as a culture judicious in itself, but as good, in comparison with what most 
people there pursue. Mr. Young has never had an opportunity of seeing how slowly 
the fertility of the original soil is exhausted, with moderate management of it. I can 
affirm, that the James river low-grounds, with the cultivation of small grain, will 
never be exhausted ; because we know, that, under that cultivation, we must now 
and then take them down with Indian corn, or they become, as they were originally, 
too rich to bring wheat. The high-lands where I live, have been cultivated about 
sixty years. The culture was tobacco and Indian corn, as long as they would bring 
enough to pay the labour ; then they were turned out. After four or five years rest, 
they would bring good corn again, and in double that time, perhaps, good tobacco. 
Then they would be exhaxisted by a second series of tobacco and com. Latterly we 
have begun to cultivate small grain; and excluding Indian corn, and fallowing, such 
of them as were originally good, soon rise up to fifteen or twenty bushels the acre. 
We allow that every labourer will manage ten acres of wheat, except at harvest. I 
have no doubt but the coupling cattle and sheep with this, would prodigiously improve 



104 

tlie produce. This improvement, Mr. Yoimg will be l)ettcr able to calculate than any 
body else. I am so well satisfied of it myself, that having engaged a good farmer 
from the head of Elk (the style of farming there you know well), I mean in a farm of 
about five hundred acres of cleared land, and with a dozen labourers to try the plan of 
wheat, rye, potatoes, clover, with a mixture of some Indian corn with the potatoes, 
and to push the number of sheep. This last hint I have taken from Mr. Young's 
letters, which you have been so kind as to communicate to me. I had never before 
considered, with due attention, the profit from that animal. I shall not be able to put 
the farm into that form exactly the ensuing autumn, but against another I hope I 
shall; and I shall attend with precision to the measures of the ground, and to the 
product, which may, perhaps, give you something hereafter to communicate to Mr. 
Young, which may gratify him ; but I will furnish the ensuing winter, what was 
desired in Mr. Young's letter of January 17, 1793. 

I have the honour to be, &c. 

THOS. JEFFERSON. 

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



RICII.VIID PETERS'S OBSERVATIONS ON AN EXTRACT OF A LETTER, DATED 15th JANUARY, 1793, FROM 
ARTHUR YOUNG, ESQ., TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 

1. " Your information has thrown me afloat on the high seas. To analyze 
your husbandry, has the difficulty of a problem. Is it possible, that the inhabitants 
of a great continent, &c. can carry on farming as a business, and yet never calcu- 
late profit by per centage on capital?" &c. 

I know not where to land Mr. Young from his sea-voyage, unless facts, well 
known and felt here, serving as pilots to guide him into a safe harbour, will enable 
him to arrive on a shore, pleasant in its prospects, and abundant in its resources ; 
not so much indebted to art as to nature, for its beauties and conveniences. Let 
him but realize his proposals of coming among us (I presume as a visitant), and 



105 

judge for himself. He will not be embarrassed -witli unavailing conjectures, or labo- 
rious calculations : he will find, that, added to our situation as a new country, where 
much land is to be had for little money, our political arrangements contribute to our 
happiness, and to our moderate, but competent wealth. We have no princes, to 
indulge the grades more immediately beneath them, in their pleasures and their pas- 
sions, that they may themselves be supported at the expense of the nation, in their 
schemes of ambition and luxury ; no over-grown nobles, to wanton on the hard earn- 
ings of an oppressed yeomanry ! He will find a respectable clergy, chosen by their 
respective congregations, and reputably supported by the voluntary contributions of 
their hearers. But these are not eccle.siastical drones ! — -fruges consumere nati : they 
do, themselves, the duties required of them ! they act not in the affairs of heaven by 
deputies, whose poverty is truly apostolical ; the penurious stipends allowed them by 
their grasping superiors, compelling them to be conversant only in the fasts, while 
their principals revel in the feasts, of the church. In a word, he will not see a sable 
host of superfluous and pampered priests (maintained by numbers who do not hear, 
or beheve in their doctrines), who fatten on the property of the people; and, while 
they fetter and terrify men's consciences, to mould them to their purposes, eat out 
their substances, under the sanction of law. These descriptions of characters, in 
other countries, create and increase taxes ; while they render their subordinates less 
liable to pay them, by enormous rents, made necessary by their dissipation and 
extravagance, and by their capricious terms of leasing lands, of which they are the 
principal engrossers. England has perhaps, less reason to complain, on these 
accounts, than some other European countries; but if we had no other statements to 
rely on than those given by Mr. Young himself, we should know enough to be con- 
vinced, that even there, some of these causes produce misfortunes in sufficient 
plenty. Not ha\'ing the least inclination, if it were in my power, to disturb the 
systems of other nations, and wishing the happiness of mankind in their own way, 
I do not mention either our positive or negative prosperity, with a view to draw 
odious or disagreeable comparisons. The world will never agree about forms of 
government. Let those who think well of grades in society, be happy in the posses- 
sion of such arrangements. We consider it fortunate, and feel it beneficial, that we 

have them not. 

27 



106 

Taxes, it is said by some, stimulate to industry; and, therelbre, the higher the tax 
the greater the exertion, and the more employment. But, if this were a more tenable 
doctrine than it is, I see not that man should labour not for himself, or for himself 
too hardly: nor should he be compelled, by artificial necessity, like a criminal immer- 
ged to the chin in water constantly flowing in upon him, incessantly to pump, or 
perish. Taxes we have, but the greater part are imperceptible, and all of them light. 
The moderate expenses of our government, and the mediocrity of our public debt, do 
not require heavy and ruinous taxation. The backs to bear it, increase faster than 
the burthen ; and we are too far removed from the scenes of ruinous and unnecessary 
wars, to dread any sudden or fatal increase of it. Wars are generally produced by the 
pride, vanity, interest, or ambition of hereditary rulers. 

The great body of an industrious people are inclined to peace; and from these, our 
government will always take its tone. As to our wars with the savages, they are, for 
the time, embarrassing, locally distressing, and generally expensive; but are not 
nationally formidable or dangerous. Disputes with them must gradually diminish, 
and, at no distant period, end. Though the reflection be painful to humanity, it is 
justified, in point of fact, by experience, that the nations in contact with the whites, 
always have been, and ever will be, exterminated. The approaches of our settle- 
ments, always banish the Indians. 

Our laws are generally liberal in their policy. We have no narrow arrangements, 
which, under false notions of national convenience, or shadowy and miscalculated 
political restrictions, palsy agriculture and commerce, by preventing those who pos- 
sess the products of the country, from disposing of wliat their labour has created, 
when, where, and how they please. Free from such restraints, and from the pressure 
of heavy rents, church-dues, and taxes, our farmers are the proprietors of the soil they 
cultivate : they gather the honey, shear the fleece, and guide the plough for them- 
selves alone. It is not the " sic vos non vobis" of Europe. They increase the value 
of their capital, while they labour for their sustenance. They do not, indeed, 
receive an annual interest, or revenue, on their capital ; but they pay none : 



107 

yet, by Uieir exertions for their own support and accommodation, and the growing 
population and improvement of the country, to which every one, stranger as well as 
native, contributes, more than an European per ccntage is added to their principal; 
insomuch, that farms will increase in very many parts of the country, tenfold in 
their value, in less than twenty years. Immense tracts of new lands have been 
recently sold by the state of Pennsylvania, at less than an English shilling per acre. 
Great and extensive bodies of these lands can be now procured, at second-hand, at 
less than half Mr. Y.'s calculation for mountain-lands. I know valuable tracts, of 
great extent, within a few days' ride of Philadelphia, which may be had at from 3.?. 
to 9s. sterling per acre. These are not " mountain-lands," though, like all the face 
of our country, they are cut in some places, by ridges. They are, for the most part, 
level, and so luxuriant in pasturage, that, maugre our winters, cattle now pass that 
season in prime order, ^^ithout cover, or artificial forage. They command both the 
New York and Philadelphia markets, and are situated in a safe country, which will, 
ere long, be as great for grazing as any in America. Other States have similar 
advantages. Mr. Y.'s farm, or even his sixty acres, and the sheep he summered on 
it, will buy him a little territory; and his capital, in ten years, will be increased 500 
per cent. This is not a bad per centage, nor is it a visionary calculation. I wish 
not to throw out fallacious temptations, but to relate facts, merely to show why our 
farmers need not make nice calculations about per centage. They have now, and 
always have had, a sure resource for the wear of their sea-board farms, &c. the 
growth of their families. Children in Europe are often a burden and expense. 
The wealth of a great part of the American farmers, grows with the additions to 
their families. The children assist in the labour of the old farm, or in the esta- 
blishment of the new one. This supersedes the necessity of calculating on hired 
labourers, the work being chiefly done within themselves; they are paid by the 
increased value of the common stock. Our laws, contrary to the feodal injustice of 
Europe, encourage and direct equality of distribution among the children of intestate 
descendants; so that many parents purposely omit making wills, contented with the 
distribution made by law. And though every man has the right, at his pleasure, to 
dispose of his estate by will or deed, yet the habits of thinking on such occasions, 



108 

take their bias from the spirit of our laws. Many, who have large families, and 
want room, or are tired of their old farms, think it better to sell, and remove to places 
where Nature is in her prime; leaving to their successors the toil, calculation, and 
expense of renovating lands exhausted by bad tillage. The worn farms always find 
purchasers; and the price paid for them, buys a sufficient quantity of new land, 
besides leaving a surplus in cash, for improvement. One day this must have an 
end ; but that day is far distant. When it ai-rives, the proprietors of old lands will 
adopt better systems of agriculture, which are now fast advancing. These will add 
to the products of their lands, and procure them more wealth, but possibly not more 
happiness, in our more ancient settlements. Our old lands are capable of renovation, 
liaving a good staple, as has been proved in numberless instances. 

I condemn not calculation, which is prudent and proper in every Ijusiness — " Ego 
sum pictor." I am sometimes seized with the faculty of calculating, but not always 
successful in the practical proof of it. I need not, however, be discouraged ; for I 
often read, with pleasure, Mr. Y.'s writings : I admire his genius, and respect even 
his enthusiasm, in which he often strikes out fine thoughts : but I venerate his can- 
dour, while he fi'equently acknowledges, that success does not always crown his own 
calculations, or invariably durable conviction, his opinions. We have here innumera- 
ble instances of farmers who get forward, without ever spending a thought on per 
centage, or other nice calculation. And however " problematical" this may seem, it 
is an observation as old as the first appearance of the redoubtable Hudibras, that 

" No argument like matter of fnct is." 

I a.sk your forgiveness for the multifarious, and perhaps tiresome scope I have 
taken. The easy situation of an industrious, full-handed American farmer, is the 
pleasing result of a combination, produced by all the causes I have mentioned. 
Instead of calculating, he labours and enjoys. And though I do not profess to have 
a good opinion of the style of American husbandry, yet even this shows the happy 
situation, in other respects, of our country. With such farming in Europe, the 
farmers would starve, and leave their children common labourers, or beggars. And 



yet, here Ihcy live well, and leave their descendants the means of obtaining the com- 
forts and conveniences of life. This is the problem I have endeavoured to solve. 
And I could not, but by this circuitous route arrive at the answer to Mr. Y's ques- 
tion, " Is it possible that the inhabitants of a great continent, not new settlers, who, of 
course, live to luiut, to eat, and to drinlc, can carry on farming as a business, and yet 
never calculate the profit they make by per centage on their capital?" The phrase- 
ology, ''who, of course, live to hunt, to eat, and to drink," I do not perfectly compre- 
hend. Our hunters are only a few borderers, and not to be counted upon as farmers; 
nor are our farmers, though they have not the best systems, idle. I therefore think, 
that (without meaning a critique) " who eat and drink, to live," would have been a 
more just arrangement of language. 

2. " The demand for cattle and sheep, products, hides, tallow, barrelling beef, 
sheep, wool, wolves, dogs, and law respecting their killing sheep." 

The demand for cattle products is as great as we can supply ; and the cattle 
business may be carried on to any extent. This ^^•ill be a growing and extensive 
business, and can be pushed as far, and to as great advantage, as in any other country. 
We have people acquainted with the victualling branch, in all its details ; and as tliis 
is a country which invites those who "are weary and heavy laden," not "to give 
them rest," but profitable employment, we have some from Cork, and can have more 
from thence, and any other part of the world. Our exported beef is in good credit, 
particularly that from Boston. I have ate mess-beef put up in Philadelphia, after 
having been an East India voyage, in excellent condition. With this beef, a sample 
of Philadelphia brewed porter was produced. This had been the same voyage, was 
perfectly good, and not inferior to English porter. Our merchants prefer our own, 
though they can purchase Irish beef. The tallow will always sell to profit, and is 
chiefly consumed here. The hides do not supply our home demand, and therefore 
importations of Spanish and other hides are frequent. A great proportion of our 
beef, and all our mutton, are consumed at home ; as our people will live well, and eat 
more meat than any equal number in the world. If tlie sheep business was carried 

28 



110 

on to much extent, there would be a necessity for exportation. The establishment of 
considerable manufactures, which is more practicable and beneficial in this country, 
than many people (particularly those of Europe) suppose, will take off part of the 
mutton of our flocks. There is little or no export of wool to foreign parts; though it 
is brought coastways, as it happens to be more abundant in one State than in 
another. There is no prohibition against the exportation of this, or any other pro- 
duct. But it is consumed at home, where excellent coarse cloths are made, in which 
a great proportion of our farmers are clad. A variety of other woollen fabrics are 
also made. 

I have no copy of what I mentioned respecting sheep destroying pasture. I know 
they do not eat so much in proportion as other beasts, and their dung is remarkably 
fertilizing; but they bite close, and the droughts and heats of summer, which are 
here long and periodical, burn up the roots. It is a generally received opinion here, 
that they destroy pasture ; and I am warranted by my own experience, to give into 
it, with some qualifications. We do not find that " the more sheep we keep, the 
more we may." I believe, in the state of our agriculture, the converse is the most 
true. In counties where it is an object, and where there are better systems of farm- 
ing, with dripping seasons, it may be other\vise. I once thought, in some degree, as 
Mr. Young does; but find that English ideas will not in this, and many other agri- 
cultural cases, apply here. In the present state of things, I adhere to my former 
opinion, that distributing sheep in small numbers to every farmer, will do better than 
any other plan. I know that more, instead of less, care can be taken of them in tliis 
way; for the farmer can, and does attend to them, without interfering too much with 
his other affairs. Invariably, the sheep of one of our small flocks look the best, and 
have the most wool. With twenty sheep to each farm capable of supporting them, 
we might have a prodigious number. If Mr. Young were here, and in the prime of 
life, and would practise his systems, so as to improve the whole mass of agriculture, 
much might be done. Our difficulty is to carry large flocks through our long 
winters. As things are, I have a better opinion of the cattle business than that of 
sheep; and I think the former would succeed better than the latter, with all the 



Ill 

management that could be bestowed on it. No one knows, however, what miglit be 
done, if the whole capitals and attention of industrious, intelligent, and experienced 
men were drawn to this point. Our snowy winters would erabarras.s, if not ruin the 
turnip plants : and the droughts of summer their large flocks. If chiccory be a 
serious auxiliary, it is well. It grows as a weed in many parts of this country. 

In the observations upon sheep you were pleased to desire of me on a former occa- 
sion, I exhausted my small stock of knowledge on that subject. If any thing in these 
observations is applicable now, I beg to refer you to them. 

Wolves are a serious enemy to the sheep plan, in places where there are the largest 
ranges. Time may, perhaps, subdue them. But we have paid for forty or fifty years 
past, out of our county-rates, 20s. for a wolfs head ; and though they are chiefly 
banished from our plains and older settlements, yet on our mountains they are plenty. 
Where a large ridge runs through a country, in other parts ever so well peopled, they 
find retreats, and breed prodigiously. Unless we can have the Pyrenean millemum, 
in which wolves and sheep, it seems, live together in worshipful society, I know not 
a speedy remedy. I lay not long ago, at the foot of the South Mountain, in York 
county, in this State, in a country very thickly settled, at the house of a Justice of 
Peace. Through the night I was kept awake by what I conceived to be a jubi- 
lee of dogs, assembled to bay the moon. But I was told in the morning, that 
what disturbed me, was only the common howling of wolves, which nobody there 
regarded. 

When I entered the " Hall of Justice," I found the 'Squire giving judgment for the 
reward on two wolf whelps a countryman had taken from the bitch. The "judg- 
ment-seat" was shaken with the intelligence, that the she-wolf was coming— not to 
give bail— but to devote herself, or rescue her offspring. The animal was punished 
for this "daring contempt," committed in the face of the court, and was shot within 
an hundred yards of the tribunal. The storge had prompted her to go a little 
too far. 



112 

Dogs are also formidable, too many being uselessly kept by the wealthy, and not a 
few by poor people, who do not feed them. The law is exactly the same as in Eng- 
land. But it is difficult to prove that the owner had the required scienter of his dog 
being accustomed to kill sheep. It is also difficult to discover the destroyer. He 
often reigns like an Achilles, but not so open in his feats of destruction. We suffer, 
therefore, the devastations committed by this nocturnal marauder, and see our slaugh- 
tered sheep, 

" Whose limbs, unburied on the naked shore. 
Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore." 

As to the law, our farmers are not fond of it, on such occasions. They think the 
first loss sufficient, and rather submit to the ravages of the " devouring dogs," than 
risque their purses being "torn" by those they dread as much as if they were " hun- 
gry vultures." In short, they prefer losing the value of their sheep, to being fleeced, 
as they suppose, in a prosecution for damages. If they discover the guilty dog, they 
proceed in a summary way — they shoot him, or otherwise put an end to his career. 
To multiply their chances of punishing the culprit, they often bring to the " lan- 
terne," or "guillotine," a number of victims, as is sometimes done on more important 
occasions : a practice, however, not very justifiable, even in the case of dogs. It is 
doing justice as quickly, if not so reputably, as was done in England by their old 
court of "Trail-baton," which, as my Lord Coke-says, was as rapid in its movements, 
" as one might draw, or traile, a staffe, or stycke." 

We must establish such a court here, if the business of sheep-feeding is largely 
extended : and perhaps send for some Pyrenean wolves, to train our mountaineers to 
a little more civiUty. If this fails, we must turn our dogs upon them, and, as artful 
politicians treat their fellow-bipeds, keep ourselves safe, by stimulating one enemy to 
root out another, and so ruin both in the contest. Seriously, if we had the means of 
keeping large flocks, so as to employ shepherds, we might manage both wolves and 
dogs ; but, at present, it is not an attainable object. 



113 

Philadelphia, September 1, 1793. 
Sir, 

Instead of commencing this letter with an apology, for suffering your favour of 
the 17th of last January to remain so long unacknowledged, I will refer you to the 
bearer, who is perfectly acquainted with my situation, for the reason why it has 
done so. 

The bearer. Sir, is Mr. Lear, a gentleman who has been a member of my family 
seven years; and, until the present moment, my Secretary; consequently cannot, as 
I have observed before, be unknowing to the nature, and pressure of the business in 
which I am continually involved. 

As a proof, however, that I have not been altogether inattentive to your commands, 
I inclose the result of Mr. Peters's answer to some inquiries of yours ; and the copy 
also of a letter from Mr. Jeiferson, to whom I had propounded for solution, other 
queries contained in your letter of the above date. 

The documents I send, have the signature of these gentlemen annexed to them, 
but for your satisfaction only. 

Mr. Peters is, as you will perceive by a vein in his letter, a man of humour. He 
is a theorist, and admitted one of the best practical farmers in this part of the state 
of Pennsylvania. * 

But, as it is not so much what the soil of this country actually produces, as what it 
is capable of producing by skilful management, that I conceive to be the object of 
your inquiry ; and to know whether this produce would meet a ready market, and 
good prices ; what the nature of the climate in general is ; the temperature thereof in 
the different States; the quality, and prices of the lands, with the improvements 
thereon, in various parts of the Union; the prospects which are unfolding in each, 

29 



114 

&c. &c., I can do no belter than refer you to the oral information of the bearer, 
who is a person of intelligence, and pretty -well acquainted with the States, from 
New Hampshire, (inclusive) to Virginia ; and one in whom you may, as I do, place 
entire confidence in all he shall relate of his own knowledge; and believe what is 
given from information, as it will be handed with caution. 

Mr. Lear has been making arrangements for forming an extensive commercial 
establishment at the Federal City, on the river Potomac; and now goes to Europe, 
for the purpose of taking measures, there, to carry his plan into effect. I persuade 
myself, that any information you can give him respecting the manufactures of Great 
Britain, will be gratefully received; and, as I have a particular friendship for him, 
I shall consider any civilities shown him by you, as a mark of your politeness to, 

Sir, 
Your most obedient, 

and very humble servant, 

G. WASHINGTON. 
Arthur Young, Esq. 



Philadelphia, December 12, 1793. 
Sir, 

I wrote to you three months ago, or more, by my late secretary and friend, Mr. 
Lear ; but as his departure from this country for Great Britain, was delayed longer 
than he or I expected, it is at least probable that that letter will not have reached 
your hands at a much earlier period than the one I am now writing. 

At the time it was written, the thoughts which I am now about to disclose to you, 
were not even in embryo : and whether, in the opinion of others, there be impropriety, 
or not, in communicating the object which has given birth to them, is not for me to 
decide. My own mind reproaches mc with none; but if yours should view the sub- 



115 

ject differently, l)iirn this letter, and the draught which accompanies it, and the whole 
matter will be consigned to obUvion. 

All my landed property, east of the Appalachian mountains, is under rent, except 
the estate called Mount Vernon. This, hitherto, I have kept in ray own hands : but 
from my present situation, from my advanced time of life, from a wish to live free 
from care, and as much at my ease as possible, during the remainder of it, and from 
other causes, which are not necessary to detail, I have, latterly, entertained serious 
thoughts of letting this estate also, reserving the mansion-house farm for my o^\-n 
residence, occupation, and amusement in agriculture ; provided I can obtain Avhat, in 
my own judgment, and in the opinion of others whom I have consulted, the low rent 
which I shall mention hereafter; and provided also I can settle it with good farmers. 

The quantity of ploughable land (including meadow), the relative situation of the 
farms to one another, and the division of these farms into separate inclosures, with 
the quantity and situation of the woodland appertaining to the tract, will be better 
delineated by the sketch herewith sent (which is made from actual surveys, subject, 
nevertheless, to revison and correction), than by a volume of words. 

No estate in United America, is more pleasantly situated than this. It lies in a 
high, dry, and healthy country, three hundred miles by water from the sea, and, as 
you wnll see by the plan, on one of the finest rivers in the world. Its margin is washed 
by more than ten miles of tide-water ; from the bed of which, and the innumerable 
coves, inlets, and small marshes, with which it abounds, an inexhaustible fund of rich 
mud may be drawn, as a maniire, either to be \ised separately, or in a compost, 
according to the judgment of the farmer. It is situated in a latitude between the 
extremes of heat and cold, and is the same distance by land and water, with good 
roads, and the best navigation (to and) from the Federal City, Alexandria, and George- 
town; distant from the first, fifteen, from the second, nine, and from the last, sixteen 
miles. The Federal City, in the year 1800, will become the seat of the general 
Sfovernment of the United States. It is increasing fast in buildings, and rising into 



116 

consequence; and will, I have no doubt, from the advantages given to it by nature, 
and its proximity to a rich interior country, and the western territory, become the 
emporium of the United States. 

The soil of the tract of which I am speaking, is a good loam, more inclined, how- 
ever, to clay than sand. From use, and I might add, abuse, it is become more and 
more consolidated, and of course heavier to work. The greater part is a greyish clay; 
some part is a dark mould; a very little is inclined to sand, and scarcely any to stone. 
A husbandman's wish would not lay the farms more level than they are; and yet 
some of the fields (but in no great degree) are washed into gullies, from which all of 
them have not as yet been recovered. 

This river, which encompasses the land the distance above-mentioned, is well sup- 
plied with various kinds of fish, at all seasons of the year; and, in the spring, with 
the greatest profusion of shad, herrings, bass, carp, perch, sturgeon, &c. Several 
valuable fisheries appertain to the estate ; the whole shore, in short, is one entire 
fishery. 

There are, as you will perceive by the plan, four farms besides that at the mansion- 
house. These four contain three thousand two hundred and sixty acres of cultivable 
land, to which some hundreds more, adjoining, as may be seen, might be added, if a 
greater quantity should be required ; but as they were never designed for, so neither 
can it be said they are calculated to suit, tenants of either the first, or of the louer 
class; because those who have the strength and resources proportioned to farms of 
from five hundred to twelve hundred acres (which these contain), would hardly be 
contented to live in such houses as are thereon : and if they were to be divided and 
sub-divided, so as to accommodate tenants of small means, say from fifty to one or 
two hundred acres, there would be none, except on the lots which might happen to 
include the present dwelling-houses of my overlookers (called bailiffs with you), 
barns, and negro-cabins: nor would I choo.se to have the w^oodland (already too 
much pillaged of its timber) ransacked, for the purpose of building many more. 



117 

The soil, however, is excellent for bricks, or for mud-walls ; and to the building of 
such houses there would be no limitation, nor to that of thatch for the cover of them. 

The towns already mentioned (to those who might incline to encounter the 
expense), are able to furnish scantling, plank, and shingles, to any amount, and on 
reasonable terms ; and they afford a ready market also for the produce of the land. 

On what is called Union Farm (containing nine hundred and twenty-eight acres of 
arable and meadow), there is a newly erected brick barn, equal, perhaps, to any in 
America, and for conveniences of all sorts, particularly for sheltering and feeding 
horses, cattle, &c. scarcely to be exceeded any where. A new house is now building 
in a central position, not far from the barn, for the overlooker, which will have two 
rooms, sixteen by eighteen feet below, and one or two above nearly of the same size. 
Convenient thereto, is sufficient accommodation for fifty odd negroes, old and youno- ; 
but these buildings might not be thought good enough for the workmen, or day- 
labourers, of your country. 

Besides these, a little without the limits of the farm (as marked in the plan) are 
one or two other houses, very pleasantly situated, and which, in case this farm 
should be divided into two (as it formerly was), would answer well for the eastern 
division. The buildings thus enumerated, are all that stand on the premises. 

Dogue Run Farm (six hundred and fifty acres) has a small, but new building for 
the overlooker; one room only below, and the same above, sixteen by twenty feet 
each ; decent and comfortable for its size. It has also covering for forty odd negroes, 
similar to what is mentioned on Union Farm. It has a new circular barn, now finish- 
ing, on a new construction ; weU calculated, it is conceived, for getting grain out of 
the straw more expeditiously than in the usual mode of threshing. There are good 
sheds also erecting, sufficient to cover thirty work-horses and oxen. 

Muddy-hole Farm (four hundred and seventy six acres) has a house for the over- 

30 



118 

looker, in size and appearance nearly like that at Dogue Run, but older: the same 
kind of covering for about thirty negroes, and a toleraljle good barn, with stables for 
the work-horses. 

River Farm, which is the largest of the four, and separated from the others by 
Little Hunting Creek, contains twelve hundred and seven acres of ploughable land, 
has an overlooker's house of one large, and two small rooms below, and one or two 
above ; sufficient covering for fifty or sixty negroes, like those before mentioned ; a 
large barn, and stables, gone much to decay, but will be replaced next year, with 
new ones. 

I have deemed it necessary to give this detail of the buildings, that a precise idea 
might be had of the conveniences and inconveniences of them; and I believe the 
recital is just in all its parts. The inclosures are precisely and accurately delineated 
in the plan; and the fences now are, or soon will be, in respectable order. 

I would let these four farms to four substantial farmers, of wealth and strength suf- 
ficient to cultivate them, and who would ensure to me the regular payment of the 
rents; and I would give them leases for seven or ten years, at the rate of a Spanish 
milled dollar, or other money current at the time, in this country, equivalent thereto, 
for every acre of ploughable and mowable ground, within the inclosures of the respec- 
tive farms, as marked in the ])lan; and would allow the tenants, during that period, 
to take fuel, and use timber from the woodland, to repair the buildings, and to keep 
the fences in order until Uve fences could be substituted in place of dead ones; but, 
in this case, no sub- tenants would be allowed. 

Or if these farms are adjudged too large, and the rents, of course, too heavy for such 
farmers as might incline to emigrate, I should have no insuperable objection against 
dividing each into as many small ones, as a society of them, formed for the purpose, 
could agree upon, among themselves; even if it should be by the fields, as they are 
now arranged (which the plan would enable them to do), provided such buildings as 



119 

tliey would be content witli, should be erected at their own expense, in the manner 
already mentioned. In which case, as in the former, fuel, and timber for repairs, 
would be allowed; but, as an inducement to parcel out my grounds into such small 
tenements, and to compensate me, at the same time, for the greater consumption of 
fuel and timber, and for the trouble and expense of collecting small rents, I should 
expect a quarter of a dollar per acre, in addition to what I have already mentioned. 
But in order to make these small farms more valuable to the occupants, and by way 
of reimbursing them for the expense, of their establishment thereon, I would grant 
them leases for fifteen or eighteen years; although I have weighty objections to the 
measure, founded on my own experience, of the disadvantage it is to the lessor, in a 
country where lands are rising every year in value. As an instance in proof, about 
twenty years ago, I gave leases for three lives, in land I held above the Blue Moun- 
tains, near the Shenandoah river, seventy miles from Alexandria, or any shipping 
port, at a rent of one shilling per acre (no part being then cleared); and now land of 
similar quality, in the vicinity, with very trifling improvements thereon, is renting, 
currently, at five, and more shillings per acre, and even as high as eight. 

My motives for letting this estate having been avowed, I will add, that the whole 
(except the Mansion-House farm), or none, will be parted with, and that upon unequi- 
vocal terms; because my object is, to fix my income (be it what it may) upon a solid 
basis, in the hands of good farmers ; because I am not inclined to make a medley of 
it; and, above all, because I could not relinquish my present course, without a moral 
certainty of the substitute which is contemplated : for to break up these farms, 
remove my negroes, and to dispose of the property on them, upon terms short of this, 
would be ruinous. 

Having said thus much, I am disposed to add further, that it would be in my 
power, and certainly it would be my inclination (upon the principle above), to accom- 
modate the wealthy, or the weak-handed farmer (and upon reasonable terms) with 
draught-horses, and working mules and oxen; with cattle, sheep, and hogs; and 
with such implements of husbandry, if they should not incline to bring them them- 



120 

selves, as are in use on the farms. On the four farms there are fifty-four draught- 
horses, twelve working mules, and a sufficiency of oxen, broke to the yoke; the 
precise number I am unable this moment to ascertain, as they are comprehended in 
the aggregate of the black cattle : of the latter, there are three hundred and seventeen ; 
of sheep, six hundred and thirty-four; of hogs, many; but as these run pretty much 
at large in the woodland (which is all under fence), the number is uncertain. Many 
of the negroes, male and female, might be hired by the year, as labourers, if this 
should be preferred to the importation of that class of people; but it deserves con- 
sideration, how far the mixing of whites and blacks together is advisable ; espe- 
cially where the former are entirely unacquainted with the latter. 

If there be those who are disposed to take these farms in their undivided state, on 
the terms which have been mentioned, it is an object of sufficient magnitude for 
them, or one of them in behalf of the rest, to come over and investigate the premises 
thorouglily, that there may be nothing to reproach themselves, or me, with, if (though 
unintentionally) there should be defects in any part of the information herein given; 
or, if a society of farmers are disposed to adventure, it is still more incumbent on them 
to send over an agent, for the purpose above-mentioned ; for with me the measure 
must be so fixed, as to preclude any cavil or discussion thereafter. And it may not 
be mal apropos to observe in this place, that our overlookers are generally engaged, 
and all the arrangements for the ensuing crops are made, before the first of Septem- 
ber in every year : it will readily be perceived, then, that if this period is suffered to 
pass away, it is not to be regained until the next year. Possession might be given to 
the new-comers at the season just mentioned, to enable them to put in their grain for 
the next crop : but the final relinquishment could not take place until the crops are 
gathered; which of Indian corn (maize), seldom happens till towards Christmas, as 
it must endure hard frosts before it can be safely housed. 

I have endeavoured, as far as my recollection of facts would enable me, or the 
documents in my possession allow, to give such information of the actual state of the 
farms, as to enable persons at a distance to form as distinct ideas as the nature of the 



121 

thing- is susceptible, short of one's own view : and having communicated the motives 
which have inchned me to a change in my system, I will announce to you the origin 
of them. 

First. Few ships, of late, have arrived from any part of Great Britain, or Ireland, 
without a number of emigrants; and some of them, by report, very respectable and 
full-handed farmers. A number of others, they say, are desirous of following, but 
are unable to obtain passages; but their coming in that manner, even if I W8is 
apprized of their arrival in time, would not answer my views, for the reason already 
assigned; and which, as it is the ultimatum at present, I will take the liberty of 
repeating, namely, that I must carry my plan into complete execution, or not 
attempt it; and under such auspices, too, as to leave no doubt of the exact fulfil- 
ment: and, 

2dly. Because from the number of letters which I have received myself, (and, as 
it would seem, from respectable people,) inquiring into matters of this sort, wdth 
intimations of their wishes, and even intentions, of migrating to this country, I can 
have no doubt of succeeding. But I have made no reply to these inquiries; or, if 
any, in very general terms ; because I did not want to engage in correspondences of 
this sort with persons of w-hom I had no knowledge, nor indeed leisure for them, if I 
had been so disposed. 

I shall now conclude as I began, with a desire, that if you see any impropriety in 
making these sentiments known to that class of people who might wish to avail 
themselves of the occasion, that it may not be mentioned. By a law, or by some 
regulation of your government, artisans, I am well aware, are laid under restraints; 
and, for this reason, I have studiously avoided any overtures to mechanics, although 
my occasions called for them. But never having heard that difficulties were thrown 
in the way of husbandmen by the government, is one reason for my bringing this 
matter to your view. A second is, that having yourself expressed sentiments which 
showed that you had cast an eye towards this country, and was not inattentive to the 

31 



122 

welfare of it, I was led 1o make my intentions known to you, that if you, or your 
friends, were disposed to avail yourselves of the Ivnowledge, you might take prompt 
measures for the execution. And, 3dly, I was sure, if you had lost sight of the 
object yourself, I could, nevertheless, rely upon such information as you might 
see fit to give me, and upon such characters, too, as you might be disposed to 
recommend. 

Lengthy as this espistle is, I will crave your patience while I add, that it is 
written in too much haste, and under too great a pressure of public business, at the 
commencement of an important session of Congress, to be correct, or properly 
digested. But the season of the year, and the apprehension of ice, are hurrying 
away the last vessel bound from this port to London. I am driven, therefore, to the 
alternative of making the matter known in this hasty manner, and giving a rude 
sketch of the farms, which is the subject of it; or to encounter delay — the first I pre- 
ferred. It can hardly be necessary to add, that I have no desire that any formal 
promulgation of these sentiments should be made. 

To accomplish my wishes, in the manner herein expressed, would be agreeable to 
me ; and iu a way that cannot be exceptionable, would be more so. 
With much esteem and regard, 
I am. Sir, 

Your most obedient servant, 

G. WASHINCxTON. 
Arthur Young, Esq. 



123 



% ' 



:S» AMB ^MISIEIS ©OMl'I^M^^, 



UNION 


FARM. 






Field, No. I. 




120 acres. 


II. . 




129 


" 


III. . 




121 


u 


IV. 




120 


" 


V. 




110 


(f 


VI. 




116 


" 


VII. . 




125 


-' 


Meadow, 


. 42 






(< 


. 25 








— 


67 


(( 


Clover lots. 




20 


" 






— 


928 


DOGUE RUN 


far:\i. 






Field, No. I. 




70 acres. 


II. . 




74 


(I 


III. . 




74 


(t 


IV. 




71 


(( 


V. 




75 


" 


VI. 




73 


•' 


VII. . 




80 


<( 


Meadow, 


. 38 

. 18 
. 12 






<c 


. 10 




" 


<( 


. 36 




" 




— 


114 


u 


Clover lots, 




18 


" 








649 



MUDDY-HOLE FARM. 

Field, No. I. . . 63 acres. 





II. . 


68 " 




III. . 


52 " 




IV. 


. 54 " 




V. 


65 " 




VI. 


80 " 




VII. . 


74 " 


Clover lot 


s, 


20 " 



476 



RIVER 


FARM. 




Field, No. I. 




120 acres. 


II. . 


. 


120 " 


IV. . 




125 " 


IV. 




132 " 


V. 




132 " 


VI. 




130 " 


VII. . 




120 " 


Pasture, 




212 " 


Orchards, &c. . 




84 " 


Clover lots, 




32 " 

1207 


Union Farm, 




. 928 


Dogne Run F 


arm. 


649 



Total of the four farms, 3260 



124 



Washington's domain at Mount Vernon included three distinct estates, and 
contained upwards of eight thousand acres, lying in a compact form, bounded on the 
east and south by the Potomac River. 

The Mansion House Estate, embraced the Mansion House Farm, and the 
Union Farm, embodying about four thousand acres; and is one of the most 
beautiful estates in Virginia. He bequeathed this to his nephew. Judge Bushrod 
Washington. 

The Estate embracing the River Farm, lying east, and separated from the above 
by Little Hunting Creek, and bounded on two sides by the Potomac, which here 
bends around from its southern course to a western, contains two thousand and 
twenty-seven acres; which he left to his nephew, Lawrence Augustine Washington, 
and his grand-nephew, George Fayette Washington; to be equally divided 
between them. 

The Third Estate, which embraces the Dogue Run Farm, lies northwest of 
the Mansion House estate ; and is that part of the domain bequeathed to his nephew-, 
Lawrence Lewis, (the son of his sister Betty,) who married Eleanor Park 
CusTis, the grand-daughter of Mrs. Washington. 



FAC SIMILES OF LETTERS 



FROM HIS EXCELLENCY 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 



SIR JOHN SINCLAIR, BART., M.P. 



AGRICULTURAL AND OTHER INTERESTING TOPICS 



ENGRAVED FROM THE ORIGINAL LETTERS 



SO AS TO BE AN EXACT FAC SIMILE OF THE HANDWRITING. 



32 



TO 

THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, 

THE FOLLOWING 



WRITTEN BY 

THE ILLUSTRIOUS WASHINGTON, 

WHO MUST EVER BE REVERED 

AS 

AN HONOUR TO THE COUNTRY WHERE HE WAS BORN 

AND 

AN ORNAMENT TO HUMAN NATURE, 

ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 

BY 

THEIR SINCERE FRIEND AND WELL-WISHER, 

JOHN SINCLAIR. 



PREFACE. 



A VARIETY of motives, which it may be proper briefly to state, have induced me to 
submit the foUowang Letters to the attention of the public. 

It could not but be highly gratifying to me, to be possessed of so many interesting 
communications from such a distinguished character as the President of the United 
States; and it was natural to suppose, that the public at large, but more especially 
those individuals who revered his memory, would wish to have in their posses- 
sion copies of a correspondence which displayed to such advantage the superior 
talents, the generous views, and the unbounded philanthropy of that celebrated 
statesman. 

The peculiar predilection which General Washington has so strongly and so 
frequently expressed, in the subsequent letters, for agricultural improvement, which 
he preferred to every other pursuit, is another circumstance which I was anxious 
should be recorded for the benefit both of the present and of future times, from a 
desire that it may make a due impression upon the minds of those who might other- 
wise be induced to dedicate themselves entirely, either to the phantoms of military 
fame, or the tortures of political ambition. 

The praises which this distinguished statesman has bestowed on the establishment 
of the British Board of Agriculture, ("an Institution," he remarks, "of the utility of 

33 



130 

which he entertained the most favourable idea from thelirst intimation of it; and that 
the more he had seen and reflected on the plan since, the more convinced he was of 
its importance, in a national point of view, not only to Great Britain, but to all other 
countries,") I was solicitous to record, as one means of protecting that valuable estab- 
lishment from the risk to which it may be exposed from the ignorance or inattention 
of future ministers, who, incapable of estimating the merits of such an Institution 
themselves, or conceiving the advantages that may be derived from it, might heed- 
lessly, either diminish the sphere of its utility, or terminate its existence. 

The wishes which the founder of the American Republic has expressed for 
having a similar establishment in America, I also judged it expedient to publish, in 
the hope that the recommendation of so great a man will ultimately be adopted as 
soon as the necessary arrangements for that purpose can be made by the govern- 
ment of the United States. 

It may now be proper to give a brief account of the origin of the following 
correspondence. 

About the year 1790, I began to be engaged in those extensive inquiries relating 
to the general state of my native country, and the means of promoting its improve- 
ment, which were not only interesting to Great Britain, but to every civilized part 
of the world; and having resolved to send the first papers which Avere printed on 
those subjects to several distinguished characters in foreign and distant countries, I 
could not think of neglecting an individual so pre-eminently conspicuous as the 
President of the United States of America. In answer to the first letter I had the 
honour of addressing to him, I received the communication dated the 20th day of 
October, 1792. 

I embraced every opportunity of transmitting, from time to time, the additional 
papers which were afterwards printed on the subjects of our correspondence, accom- 



131 

panied by letters, of only one of which I huvc a copy, in which I endeavoured to 
demonstrate the advantages which might be derived from establishing a Board of 
Agricultxire in America. Of that letter, I beg leave to subjoin the following extract, 
as it tends to explain more fully General Washington's answer of the 6th day of 
March, 1797, stating the circumstances which at that time prevented the immediate 
adoption of that measure. 

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM SIR JOHN SINCLAIR TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Whitehall, London, 10th September, 1796. 

-* * -Sr * * -* -* * * * 

"The people of this country, as well as of America, learn, with infinite regret, that 
you propose resigning your situation as President of the United States. I shall not 
enter into the discussion of a question of which I am incompetent to judge; but, if 
it be so, I hope that you mil recommend some agricultural establishment on a great 
scale before you quit the reins of government. By that, I mean a Board of 
Agriculture, or some similar institution, at Philadelphia, with Societies of Agri- 
culture in the capital of each State, to correspond with it. Such an establishment 
would soon enable the farmers of America to acquire agricultural knowledge, and, 
what is of equal importance, afford them the means of communicating what they 
have learnt to their countrymen. 

" I scarcely think that any government can be properly constituted without such 
an establishment. As mere individuals, four things are necessary: 1, food; 2, 
clothing; 3, shelter; 4, mental improvement. As members of a large community, 
four other particulars seem to be essential, namely: 1, property; 2, marriage; 3, 
laws for our direction in this world; and, 4, religion to prepare us for another. But 
the foundation of the whole is food, and that country must be the happiest where 
that sine qua non can be most easily obtained. The surest means of securing abun- 
dance of food, however, is by ascertaining the best mode of raising it, and rousing a 



132 

spirit of improvement for thai. p\irpose, for both of wliich the countenance and pro- 
tection of the government of a country, through tlie medium of some pubUc 
establishment, is essential. Tlie trifling expense for which such an institution 
might be supported is another argument in its favour. 

" I am induced more particularly to dwell upon this circumstance, as it might be 
in my power, on various occasions, to give' useful hints to America, were I satisfied 
that they would be duly weighed, and if approved of, acted upon. For instance, 
you will herewith receive some Egyptian wheat, which produces at the rate of one 
hundred and eighty bushels per English acre. Indeed, without such a grain, so 
narrow a country as Egypt could never have fed such multitudes of people as it did 
in ancient times. I have no doubt of its thriving in America equally well. It also 
recently occurred to me, that in the Southern States, other plants, as the New Zea- 
land kind of hemp, might be raised in great perfection. But to introduce any new 
article of produce, the countenance, and in some cases, the assistance of the govern- 
ment of a state is necessary. "When once, however, the practicability of cultivating 
any article is ascertained, it cannot be of any real advantage to a nation if it stand in 
need of legislative aid. 

" But I have already tired your Excellency with too long a dissertation, which I 
am persuaded you will attribute to its real cause, enthusiasm in favour of Agricul- 
ture, and respect for so valuable a friend to it as General Washington. For other 
particulars, I must refer to our intelligent friend. Doctor Edwards, to whose charge 
I have taken the liberty of delivering a parcel, with some papers we have lately 
printed, &/C. 

" It will give me much pleasure to be of any use to Mr. King, Mr. Gore, or Mr. 
Pinckney, during their residence in England. Indeed, I have always felt a strong 
desire of showing every attention in my power to any American gentleman who may 
have visited this country ; for though our governments are now distinct, the people 



133 

are in fact the same, without any possible inducement to quarrel, if they knew their 
respective interests, and with every reason to wish eacli otlier well, and to promote 
their mutual prosperity. 

" Before I conclude, permit me to ask, is there no chance of seeing General 
Washington in England? I should be proud of his accepting an apartment in 
my house, and I anl sure that he would meet with the most flattering reception in 
every part of the Island, but from none with more real attachment and regard, than 
from, &c." 

As it is a singular circumstance, that a person in such an exalted situation as 
General Washington, should have leisure to write, with his own hand, so many 
letters to an entire stranger, and some of them of considerable length, I have been 
induced to have them engraved, in order to represent the hand-writing of their cele- 
brated author : they are exact copies of those received by me. It is proposed to 
deposit the originals in the British Museum, as the precious relics of a great man, fit 
to be preserved in that valuable repository. 

It may be proper to add, that the following collection contains all the letters I have 
received, with the exception of two, the first of which was marked private, and is 
mentioned in General Washington's letters of the 15th of July, and 6th of Novem- 
ber, 1797. It is a long and interesting paper, which, however, it would not be proper 
to publish at this time. The other letter was of a late date, and alludes to circum- 
stances of a nature which it would be improper at present to communicate to the 
public. 

To conclude, I hope that these letters will not only furnish much satisfactory 
information to the reader, as containing the sentiments of General Washington on 
agricultural and other important subjects, but will also display, to peculiar advan- 
tage, the character of the much respected author; and with the profits of the publi- 

34 



134 

cation I trust it will be in my power to pay a proper tribute of respect to the memory 
of one, who, though the immediate cause of the separation between Great Britain 
and America, yet is the person to whom, in a great measure, is to be ascribed the 
good understanding which now so happily subsists between the two countries; and 
whose character must ever be revered, even by those with whom he contended, 
either in war or politics, as containing as much good, with as little alloy, as that of 
any indi^ddual whose memory is recorded in history. 

London, 29 Parliament Street, 1st March, 1800. 



13: 



SINCE THIS WORK WAS SENT TO THE PRESS, I FIND THAT ONE OF GENERAL WASHINGTON'S MOST 
INTERESTING LETTERS HAS BEEN LOST. THERE IS FORTUNATELY, HOWEVER, AN EXTRACT FROM 
IT IN THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE COMMUNICATIONS PUBLISHED BY THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 

[P. 374,] A COPY OF WHICH I BEG LEAVE TO LAY BEFORE THE READER, FROM THAT PUBLICATION. 

Philadelphia, 10th December, 1796. 

********** 
" The result of the experiments entrusted to the care of Dr. Fordyce, must be as 
curious as they may prove interesting to the science of husbandry. Not less so will 
be an intelligent solution of those queries relative to live stock, which are handed to 
the public. 

"A few months more, say the 3d of March next, (1797,) and the scenes of my 
political life will close, and leave me in the shades of retirement; when, if a few 
years are allowed me to enjoy it, (many I cannot expect, being upon the verge of 
sixty-five,) and health is continued to me, I shall peruse with pleasure and edification 
the fruits of the exertions of the Board for the improvement of agriculture; and 
shall have leisure, I trust, to realize some of the useful discoveries which have been 
made in the science of husbandry. 

" Until the above period shall have arrived, and particularly during the present 
session of Congress, which commenced the 5th instant, I can give but little attention 
to matters out of the line of my immediate avocations. I did not, however, omit the 
occasion, at the opening of the session, to call the attention of that body to the im- 
portance of agriculture. What will be the result, I know not at present ; but if it 
should be favourable, the hints which you will have it in your power to give, cannot 
fail of being gratefully received by the members who may constitute the Board." 



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♦* 



REMARKS ON THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON. 



BY SIR JOHN SINCLAIR. 



Whoever has perused the preceding Letters will, I trust, concur with me in the 
following reflections. 

1. That nothing could possibly place the character of this distinguished statesmati 
in a more estimable light, than that of beholding the same individual, whose military 
exploits had spread his fame over the universe, and who had been invested with 
supreme power in the country where he was born, in the midst of all his various 
public avocations, carrying on an extensive correspondence with a native of a distant 
country, on agricultural and other general inquiries of a similar nature. 

2. That those who are blest with a reflecting and philosophic mind, must contem- 
plate wdth pleasure and delight a person, elevated by the voice of his fellow-citizens 
to the summit of political authority, who, instead of wishing to aggrandize himself, 
and to extend his power, was anxiously bent to quit that situation, to which so many 
others would have fondly aspired, and to return to the comfort and enjoyment of pri- 
vate life; belying thus the insinuations of those malignant spirits who are perpetually 
railing against the talents and virtues which, conscious of wanting themselves, they 
do not believe that others can possess. 

3. Is there, on the whole, any individual, either in ancient or modern history, who 
has prouder claims to distinction and pre-eminence, than the great character whose 
letters this volume contains? His military talents were early celebrated; first in the 

44 



174 

service of Great Britain, and afterwards in that of America. His powers as a states- 
man, and as the founder of a Constitution, which, with British prejudices, I may con- 
sider as inferior to our own, but which Ipromises to secure the happiness of the great 
nation it was formed to govern, cannot possibly be questioned. His pubUc virtue, as 
the uncorrupted magistrate ot a free people, who reluctantly received supreme autho- 
rity, when it was judged necessary for the public good for him to assume it, and who 
anxiously wished to resign it into their hands, when it could be done with public 
safety, can hardly be equalled in history. His literary endowments were unquestion- 
ably of a superior order. His letters in this collection, his addresses to the American 
Congress, and his farewell oration when he quitted, for the last time, the Presidency 
of the United States, are models of each species of composition. His closing a well- 
spent life, after a short illness, without having his strength or faculties impaired by 
any previous disorder, or any untoward circumstances having occurred that could 
materially affect his feelings, or could possibly tarnish his fame, is an uncommon 
instance of good fortune. The scene in which he acted also, and the object which he 
achieved, are the most memorable which history furnishes. For it was such a man 
alone, who, by combining the force and commanding the confidence of thirteen sepa- 
rate States, could have dissolved those ties which subjected America to Europe, and to 
whom the political separation of two worlds is to be attributed. But, above all, what 
distinguished this celebrated warrior and statesman is, that to all those military and 
public talents, and to those literary endowments, which are so rarely united in the 
same person, he added the practice of every virtue that could adorn the private indi- 
vidual. It were in vain for me to attempt adequately to express the ideas I entertain 
of a character, in every respect so pecuharly splendid. The pen of the immortal 
Shakspeare is alone competent to the task, and on the tombstone of the illustrious 
Washington let it be engraved — 

His life was gentle, and the elements 

So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up 

And say to all the world, — Tuis was a man, 

TAKE HIM FOR ALL IN ALL, 

We SHALL NOT LOOK UPON HIS LIKE AGAIN. 



175 



OFFICIAL AND PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 



ILLNESS AND DEATH OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS WASHINGTON, 

AS PUBLISHED BT THE PHYSICIANS WHO ATTENDED HIM. 

Some time in the night of Friday, the 13th December, having been exposed to a 
rain on the preceding day, General Washington was attacked with an inflammatory 
affection of the upper part of the windpipe, called in technical language, cynanchc 
trachealis. The disease commenced vnXh. a violent ague, accompanied with some 
pain in the upper and fore part of the throat, a sense of stricture in the same part, a 
cough, and a difficult rather than a painful deglutition, which were soon succeeded 
by fever, and a quick and a laborious respiration. The necessity of blood-letting 
suggesting itself to the General, he procured a bleeder in the neighbourhood, who 
took from his arm, in the night, twelve or fourteen ounces of blood. He would not 
by any means be prevailed uj)on by the family to send for the attending physician 
till the following morning, who arrived at Mount Vernon at about eleven o'clock on 
Saturday. Discovering the case to be highly alarming, and foreseeing the fatal ten- 
dency of the disease, two consulting physicians were immediately sent for, who 
arrived, one at half after three, the other at four o'clock in the afternoon. In the 
interim were employed two copious bleedings, a blister was applied to the part 
affected, two moderate doses of calomel were given, and an injection was adminis- 
tered, which operated on the lower intestines — but all without any perceptible 
advantage, the respiration becoming still more difficult and distressing. 

Upon the arrival of the first of the consulting physicians, it was agreed, as there 
were yet no signs of accumulation in the bronchial vessels of the lungs, to try the 



176 

result of another bleeding, when about thirty-two ounces of blood were drawn, 
without the smallest apparent alleviation of the disease. Vapours of vinegar and 
water were frequently inhaled; ten grains of calomel were given, succeeded by 
repeated doses of emetic tartar, amounting in all to five or six grains, with no other 
effect than a copious discharge from the bowels. The powers of life seemed now 
manifestly yielding to the force of the disorder. Blisters were applied to the extrem- 
ities, together with a cataplasm of bran and vinegar to the throat. Speaking, which, 
was painful from the beginning, now became almost impracticable; respiration grew 
more and more contracted and imperfect, till half after eleven o'clock on Saturday 
night, retaining the full possession of his intellect, when he expired without a 



He was fully impressed at the beginning of his complaint, as well as through every 
succeeding stage of it, that its conclusion would be mortal ; submitting to the several 
exertions made for his recovery rather as a duty, than from any expectation of their 
efficacy. He considered the operations of death upon his system as coeval with the 
disease; and several hours before his decease, after repeated efforts to be understood, 
succeeded in expressing a desire that he might be permitted to die without inter- 
ruption. 

During the short period of his illness, he economized his time in the arrangement 
of such few concerns as required his attention, with the utmost serenity, and antici- 
pated his approaching dissolution with every demonstration of that equanimity for 
which his whole life has been so uniformly and singularly conspicuous. 

JAMES CRAIK, Attending Phyeician. 
ELISHA C. DICK, consulting Physician. 



THE MELANCHOLY EVENT OF WASHINGTON'S DEATH WAS ANNOUNCED TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE 
UNITED STATES IN THE FOLLOWING LETTER FROM MR. LEAR. 



Mount Verxon, Dec. IG, 1799. 

SiK, 

It is with inexpressible grief that I have to announce to you the death of the 
great and good General Washington. He died last evening between ten and eleven 
o'clock, after a short illness of about t\venty-four hours. His disorder was an 
inflammatory sore thoat, which proceeded from a cold, of which he made but little 
complaint on Friday. On Saturday morning about three o'clock he became ill. 
Dr. Dick attended him in the morning, and Dr. Craik, of Alexandria, and Dr. Brown, 
of Port Tobacco, were soon after called in. Every medical assistance was afforded, 
but without the desired effect. His last scene corresponded with the whole tenor 
of his life. Not a groan, not a complaint escaped him in extreme distress. With 
perfect resignation, and a full possession of his reason, he closed his well spent life. 

TOBIAS LEAR. 

The President of the United States. 



It is unnecessary to add, that the intelligence of this distressing event was rapidly 
spread throughout all America, and received with the deepest symptoms of sorrow 
and regret; nor was there any part of Europe, where those who felt any respect for 
integrity and virtue, did not consider the death of General Washington as a public 
calamity. 

45 



TOMB OF WASHINGTON. 



The desire, expressed by Washington in his will, for the removal of the family 
vault, in consequence of its decay and improper situation, has been fully complied 
with. A new tomb was erected in 1831, on the side of a steep sloping hill, having 
a southern exposure, upon a thickly wooded dell; being the spot marked out by him, 
c^nd designated as the " foot of the Vineyard Enclosure." It is built of brick, the 
walls rising eight feet from the ground, and arched over; the front is roughcast, and 
has a plain iron door with a strong casement of freestone. Over the door is a stone 
panel inscribed with these words: 

I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE, HE THAT 

BELIEVETH IN ME, THOUGH HE WERE DEAD, 

YET SHALL HE LIVE. 

At a small distance from the walls of the tomb, there is a surrounding enclosure of 
brick, elevated to the height of twelve feet, with an iron gate in front opening seve- 
ral feet in advance of the vault door. The gateAvay is flanked with pilasters, sur- 
mounted by a stone cornice and coping, covering a pointed gothic arch, over which 
is a plain slab with this inscription : 

V/ITHIN THIS ENCLOSDRE REST THE REMAINS OF GENERAL 

GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



In 1837, John Strutliers, Esq., of Philadelphia, requested the [jrivilege of con- 
structing a cofRn, or sarcophagus of marble, in which the remains of The Father 



179 

OF HIS Country mighl be deposited ; and received from the surviviii<i; executor tlie 
foUowiiitr reply : 



AuDLEY, February 'i'id, 1837. 
Dear Sir, 

I have to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 7th inst. In reply to it, I can 
only say, being the only surviving executor of General Washington, I have only my 
own feelings to consult upon a refusal or acceptance of your A'ery liberal and polite 
offer of a stone coffin, as a depository for the remains of him " who was first in 

WAR, first in peace, AND FIRST IN THE HEARTS OF HIS COUNTRYMEN." 

The manner of making your offer, the delicacy with which it is proffered, forbids a 
refusal to accept it; and I tender you, in behalf of every relative of this distinguished 
man, the most cordial and sincere thanks for the kind feeling which has actuated you 
upon this occasion. I leave it to your experience to make it in form and manner as 
you may think best. 

I am, dear Sir, 

Very respectfully yours, 

LAWRENCE LEWIS. 



Mr. Struthcrs, accordingly, constructed a sarcophagus, of modern form, from a solid 
block of Pennsylvania marble, eight feet in length, three feet in width, and two feet 
in height, resting on a plinth which projects four inches round the base. The top, or 
covering-stone, is of Italian marble, on which is sculptured, in the boldest relief, the 
arms and insignia of the United States; the design occupying a large portion of the 



180 

central part of the top surface. Between tlicse armorial bearings and the foot of ihe 
coffin is deeply cut, in large letters, the name of 



WASHINGTON 



On the foot of the coffin is inscribed, 



BY PERMISSION OF LAWRENCE LEWIS, Esq., THIS 
SARCOPHAGUS OF WASHINGTON, WAS PRESENTED BY 

JOHN STRUTHERS, OF PHILADELPHIA, 
MARBLE MASON. 



This beautiful sarcophagus being forwarded to Mount Vernon; on Saturday, the 
7th of October, 1837, the body of Washington, encased in lead, Avas taken from the 
vault and laid in it; and the ponderous top-stone being put on, set in cement, sealed 
from our sight the mortal remains of him whose name will be handed down to the 
latest generations as the greatest of men. 

It is placed on the right of the gateway or entrance to the tomb; and another coffin, 
also of marble, containing the remains of Mrs. Washington, on the left : both being 
open to the view, through the iron gate, of those wdio make a pilgrimage to 
Mount Vernon. 



THE WILL OF WASHINGTON 



IN THE NAIME OF GOD, AMEN. 

I, George Washington, of Mount Vernon, a citizen of the United States, and 
lately President of the same, do make, ordain, and declare this instrument, which is 
■written with my own hand, and every page thereof subscribed with my name, to be 
my last Will and Testament, revoking all others. 

I.MPRi.Aiis. — All my debts, of which there are but few, and none of magnitude, are 
to be punctually and speedily paid, and the legacies, hereinafter bequeathed, are to 
be discharged as soon as circumstances will permit, and in the manner directed. 

Itei^i. — To my dearly beloved wife, Martha W"ashington, I give and bequeath 
the use, profit, and benefit of my whole estate, real and personal, for the term of her 
natural life, except such parts thereof as are specially disposed of hereafter. My 
improved lot in the town of Alexandria, situated on Pitt and Cameron streets, I give 
to her and her heirs for ever; as I also do my household and kitchen furniture of 
every sort and kind, with the liquors and groceries which may be on hand at the 
time of my decease, to be used and disposed of as she may think proper. 

Iteim. — Upon the decease of my wife, it is my will and desire, that all the slaves 
whom I hold in my own right, shall receive their freedom. To emancipate them 
during her life would, though earnestly wished by me, be attended with insuperable 
difficulties, on account of their intermixture by marriage with the dower negroes, as 

46 



182 

to excite the most painful sensations, if not disagreeable consequences to the latter, 
while both descriptions are in the occupancy of the same proprietor; it not being in 
my power, under the tenure by which the dower negroes are held, to manumit them. 
And whereas, among those who will receive freedom according to this devise, there 
may be some, who, from old age or bodily infirmities, and others, who, on account of 
their infancy, will be unable to support themselves, it is my will and desire, that all, 
who come under the first and second description, shall be comfortably clothed and fed 
by my heirs while they live; and that such of the latter description as have no parents 
living, or, if living, are unable or unwilling to provide for them, shall be bound by 
the court until they shall arrive at the age of twenty-five years ; and, in cases where 
no record can be produced, whereby their ages can be ascertained, the judgment of 
the court, upon its own view of the subject, shall be adequate and final. The 
negroes thus bound, are (by their masters or mistresses) to be taught to read and 
write, and to be brought up to some useful occupation, agreeably to the laws of the 
Commonwealth of Virginia, providing for the support of orphan and other poor 
children. And I do hereby expressly forbid the sale or transportation out of the 
said Commonwealth, of any slave I may die possessed of, under any pretence what- 
ever. And I do, moreover, most pointedly and most solemnly enjoin it upon my 
executors hereafter named, or the survivors of them, to see that this clause respecting 
slaves, and every part thereof, be religiously fulfilled at the epoch at which it is 
directed to take place, without evasion, neglect, or delay, after the crops which may 
then be on the ground are harvested, particularly as it respects the aged and infirm; 
seeing that a regular and permanent fund be established for their support, as long as 
there are subjects requiring it; not trusting to the uncertain provision to be made by 
individuals. And to my mulatto man William, calling himself William Lee, I give 
immediate freedom, or, if he should prefer it, (on account of the accidents which 
have befallen him, and which have rendered him incapable of walking, or of any 
active employment,) to remain in the situation he now is, it shall be optional in him 
to do so; in either case, however, I allow him an annuity of thirty dollars, during 
his natural life, which shall be independent of the victuals and clothes he has been 
accustomed to receive, if he chooses the last alternative; but in full M-ith his 



183 

freedom if he prefers the first; and this I give him, as a testimony of my sense of 
his attachment to me, and for his faithful services during the revolutionary war. 

Item. — To the trustees (governors, or by whatsoever other name they may be 
designated) of the Academy in the town of Alexandria, I give and bequeath, in trust, 
four thousand dollars, or in other words, twenty of the shares which I hold in the 
Bank of Alexandria, towards the support of a free school, established at, and annexed 
to, the said Academy, for the purpose of educating such orphan children, or the 
children of such other poor and indigent persons, as are unable to accomplish it with 
their own means, and who, in the judgment of the trustees of the said seminary, are 
best entitled to the benefit of this donation. The aforesaid twenty shares I give and 
bequeath in perpetuity ; the dividends only of which are to be drawn for and applied, 
by the trustees for the time being, for the uses above mentioned ; the stock to remain 
entire and untouched, unless indications of failure of said bank should be so apparent, 
or a discontinuance thereof, should render a removal of this fund necessary. lu 
either of these cases, the amount of the stock here devised is to be vested in some 
other bank, or public institution, whereby the interest may with regularity and 
certainty be drawn and applied as above. And to prevent misconception, my mean- 
ing is, and is hereby declared to be, that these twenty shares are in lieu of, and not 
in addition to the thousand pounds given by a missive letter some years ago, in con- 
sequence whereof an annuity of fifty pounds has since been paid towards the support 
of this institution. 

Ite]\i. — Whereas by a law of the Commonwealth of Virginia, enacted in the year 
1785, the Legislature thereof was pleased, as an evidence of its approbation of the 
services I had rendered the public during the Revolution, and partly, I believe, in 
consideration ot my having suggested the vast advantages which the community would 
derive from the extension of its inland navigation imder legislative patronage, to 
present me with one hundred shares, of one hundred dollars each, in the incorporated 
Company, established for the purpose of extending the navigation of James River from 
the tide water to the mountains; and also with fifty shares, of £100 sterling each, in 



184 

the corporation of another Company, likewise established for the similar purpose of 
opening the navigation of the River Potomac from the tide vi^ater to Fort Cumber- 
land; the acceptance of which, although the offer Avas highly honourable and 
grateful to my feelings, was refused, as inconsistent with a principle which I had 
adopted, and had never departed from, viz. not to receive pecuniary compensation for 
any services I could render my country in its arduous struggle with Great Britain 
for its rights, and because I had evaded similar propositions from other States in the 
Union; adding to this refusal, however, an intimation, that, if it should be the 
pleasure of the Legislature to permit me to appropriate the said shares to public uses, 
I would receive them on those terms with due sensibility; and this it having 
consented to, in flattering terms, as will appear by a subsequent law, and sundry 
resolutions, in the most ample and honourable manner; — I proceed after this recital, 
for the more correct understanding of the case, to declare; that, as it has always 
been a source of serious regret with me, to see the youth of these United States sent 
to foreign countries for the purpose of education, often before their minds were 
formed, or they had imbibed any adequate ideas of the happiness of their own; 
contracting too frequently, not only habits of dissipation and extravagance, but prin- 
ciples iinfriendly to republican government, and to the true and genuine liberties of 
mankind, which thereafter are rarely overcome; for these reasons it has been my 
ardent wish to see a plan devised on a liberal scale, which would have a tendency to 
spread systematic ideas through all parts of this rising empire, thereby to do away 
local attachments and state prejudices, as far as the nature of things would, or indeed 
ought to admit, from our national councils. Looking anxiously forward to the 
accomplishment of so desirable an object as this is, (in my estimation,) my mind has 
not been able to contemplate any plan more likely to effect the measure, than the 
establishment of a University in a central part of the United States, to which the 
youths of fortune and talents from all parts thereof may be sent for the completion of 
their education, in all the branches of polite literature, in arts and sciences, in 
acquiring knowledge in the principles of politics and good government, and, as a 
matter of infinite importance in my judgment, by associating with each other, and 
forming friendships in juvenile years, be enabled to free themselves in a proper 



185 

degree from those local prejudices and habitual jealousies which have just been 
mentioned, and which, when carried to excess, are never-failing sources of dis- 
quietude to the public mind, and pregnant of mischievous consequences to this 
country. Under these impressions, so fully dilated, 

Iteim.— I give and bequeath, in perpetuity, the fifty shares which I hold in the 
Potomac Company, (under the aforesaid acts of the Legislature of Virginia,) towards 
the endowment of a University, to be established within the limits of the District of 
Columbia, under the auspices of the general government, if that government should 
incline to extend a fostering hand towards it ; and, until such seminary is established, 
and the funds arising on these shares shall be required for its support, my further will 
and desire is, that the profit accruing therefrom shall, whenever the dividends are 
made, be laid out in purchasing stock in the Bank of Columbia, or some other bank, 
at the discretion of my executors, or by the Treasurer of the United States for the time 
being, under the direction of Congress, provided that hououraljle body should patron- 
ise the measure; and the dividends proceeding from the purchase of such stock are to 
be invested in more stock, and so on, until a sum adequate to the accomplishment of 
the object is obtained; of which I have not the smallest doubt before many years pass 
away, even if no aid or encouragement is given by the legislative authority, or from 
any other source. 

Item.— The hundred shares, which I hold in the James River Company, I have 
given, and now confirm in perpetuity, to and for the use and benefit of Liberty Hall 
Academy, in the county of Rockbridge, in the commonwealth of "Virginia. 

Ite:\i. — I release, exonerate, and discharge the estate of my deceased brother, 
Samuel Wa.shington, from the payment of the money which is due to me for the land 
I sold to Philip Pendleton, (lying in the county of Berkeley,) who assigned the same 
to him, the said Samuel, who by agreement was to pay me therefor. And whereas, 
by some contract (the purport of which was never communicated to me) between the 
said Samuel and his son, Thornton Washington, the latter became possessed of the 

47 



180 

aforesaid land, without any conveyance having passed from me, either to the said 
Pendleton, the said Samuel, or the said Thornton, and without any consideration 
having been made, by which neglect neither the legal nor equitable title has been 
alienated; it rests therefore with me to declare my intentions concerning the premi- 
ses; and these are, to give and bequeath the said land to whomsoever the said Thorn- 
ton Washington, (who is also dead) devised the same, or to his heirs for ever, if he died 
intestate; exonerating the estate of the said Thornton, equally with that of the said 
Samuel, from payment of the purchase money, which, with interest, agreeably to the 
original contract with the said Pendleton, would amount to more than a thousand 
pounds. And whereas two other sons of my deceased brother Samuel, namely, 
George Steptoe Washington, and Lawrence Augustine Washington, were, by the 
decease of those to whose care they were committed, brought under my protection, 
and, in consequence, have occasioned advances on my part, for their education at col- 
lege and other schools, for their board, clothing, and other incidental expenses, to the 
amount of near five thousand dollars, over and above the sums furnished by their 
estate, which sum it may be inconvenient for them or their father's estate to refund; I 
do for these reasons acquit them and the said estate from the payment thereof, my 
intention being, that all accounts between them and me, and their father's estate and 
me, shall stand balanced. 

Ite:m. — The balance due to me from the -estate of Bartholomew Dandridge, 
deceased, (my wife's brother) and which amounted on the first day of October, 
1795, to four hundred and twenty-five pounds, (as will appear by an account 
rendered by his deceased son, John Dandridge, who was the acting executor of his 
father's will,) I release and acquit from the payment thereof. And the negroes, 
then thirty-three in number, formerly belonging to the said estate, Avho were taken 

in execution, sold, and purchased in on my account, in the year , and ever since 

have remained in the possession and to the use of Mary, widow of the said Bartholo- 
mew Dandridge, with their increase, it is my will and desire shall continue and 
l)e in her possession, without paying hire, or making compensation for the same 
for the time past, or to come, during her natural life; at the expiration of which, I 



1S7 

direct tliat all of them who are forty years old and upwards shall receive their 
freedom; and all under that age, and above sixteen, shall serve seven years and no 
longer; and all under sixteen years shall serve until Ihc}^ are twenty-five years of 
age, and then be free. And, to avoid disputes respecting the ages of any of these 
negroes, they are to be taken into the court of the county in which they reside; and 
the judgment thereof, in this relation, shall be final, and record thereof made, which 
may be adduced as evidence at any time thereafter, if disputes should arise concern- 
ing the same. And I further direct, that the heirs of the said Bartholomew Dan- 
dridge shall equally share the benefits arising from the services of the said negroes, 
according to the tenor of this devise, upon the decease of their mother. 

Iteai. — If Charles Carter, who intermarried with my niece Betty Lewis, is not 
sufficiently secured in the title to the lots he had of me in the town of Fredericks- 
burg, it is my will and desire, that my executors shall make such conveyances of 
them as the law requires to render it perfect. 

IxEir. — To my nephew, William Augustine AVashinglou, and his heirs, (if he 
should conceive them to be objects worth prosecuting,) a lot in the town of Man- 
chester, (oposite to Richmond,) No. 265, drawn on my sole account, and also the 
tenth of one or two hundred acre lots, and two or three half acre lots, in the city 
and vicinity of Richmond, drawn in partnership with nine others, all in the lottery 
of the deceased William Byrd, are given ; as is also a lot which I purchased of John 
Hood, conveyed by William Willie and Samuel Gordon, trustees of the said John 
Hood, numbered 139, in the town of Edinburgh, in the county of Prince George, 
state of Virginia. 

Item. — To my nephew, Bushrod Washington, I give and bequeath all the papers 
in my possession, %vhich relate to my ci\dl and military administration of the affairs 
of this country. I leave to him also such of my private papers as are worth preserv- 
ing; and at the decease of my wife, and before, if she is not inclined to retain them, 
I give and bequeath my library of books and pamphlets of every kind. 



188 

Item. — Having sold lands which I possessed in the state of Pennsylvania, and 
part of a tract held in equal right with George Clinton, late governor of New York, 
in the state of New York, my share of land and interest in the Great Dismal Swamp, 
and a tract of land which I owned in the county of Gloucester, withholding the legal 
titles thereto, until the consideration money should be paid, and having moreover 
leased and conditionally sold (as will appear by the tenor of the said leases) all my 
lands upon the Great Kanhawa, and a tract upon Difficut Run, in the county of 
Loudoun, it is my will and direction, that whensoever the contracts are fully and 
respectively complied with, according to the spirit, true intent, and meaning thereof, 
on the part of the purchasers, their heirs or assigns, that then, and in that case, con- 
veyances are to be made, agreeably to the terms of said contracts, and the money 
arising therefrom, when paid, to be vested in bank stock; the dividends whereof, 
as of that also which is already vested therein, are to inure to my said wife during 
her life; but the stock itself is to remain and be subject to the general distribution 
hereafter directed. 

IxEM. — To the Earl of Buchan I recommit the "Box made of the Oak that sheltered 
the great Sir WiUiam Wallace, after the battle of Falkirk," presented to me by his 
Lordship, in terms too flattering for me to repeat, with a request " to pass it, on the 
event of my decease, to the man in my country, who should appear to merit it best, 
upon the same conditions that have induced him to send it to me." Whether easy or 
not to select the man, who might comport with his Lordship's opinion in this respect, 
is not for me to say; but, conceiving that no disposition of this valuable curiosity 
can be more eligible than the recommitment of it to his own cabinet, agreeably to 
the original design of the Goldsmith's Company of Edinburgh, who presented it to 
him, and, at his request, consented that it should be transferred to me, I do give and 
bequeath the same to his Lordship; and, in case of his decease, to his heir, with my 
grateful thanks for the distingushed honour of presenting it to me, and more 
especially for the favourable sentiments with which he accompanied it. 

IxEM. — To my brotlier, Charles Washington, I give and bequeath the gold-headed 



189 

cane left me by Dr. Franklin m his will. I add nothing to it, because of the ample 
provision I have made for his issue. To the acquaintances and friends of my juve- 
nile years, Lawrence Washington and Robert Washington, of Chotanck, I give my 
other two gold-headed canes, having my arms engraved on them; and to each, as 
they will be useful where they live, I leave one of the spyglasses, which constituted 
part of my equipage during the late war. To my compatriot in arms, and old and 
intimate friend, Dr. Craik, I give my bureau, (or, as the cabinet-makers call it, tam- 
bour secretary,) and the circular chair, an appendage of my study. To Dr. David 
Stuart, I give my large shaving and dressing table, and my telescope. To the 
Reverend, now Bryan, Lord Fairfax, I give a Bible, in three large folio volumes, 
with notes, presented to me by the Right Reverend Thomas Wilson, Bishop of 
Sodor and Man. To General de Lafayette, I give a pair of finely wrought steel 
pistols, taken from the enemy in the revolutionary war. To my sisters-in-law, 
Hannah Washington and Mildred Washington, to my friends, Eleanor Stuart, 
Hannah Washington, of Fairfield, and Elizabeth Washington, of Hayfield, I give 
each a mourning ring, of the value of one hundred dollars. These bequests are not 
made for the intrinsic value of them, but as mementos of my esteem and regard. To 
Tobias Lear, I give the use of the farm, which he now holds in virtue of a lease 
from me to him and his deceased wife, (for and during their natural lives,) free from 
rent during his life; and at the expiration of which, it is to be disposed of as is 
hereinafter directed. To Sally B. Haynie, (a distant relation of mine,) I give and 
bequeath three hundred dollars. To Sarah Green, daughter of the deceased Thomas 
Bishop, and to Ann Walker, daughter of John Alton, also deceased, I give each one 
hundred dollars, in considei'ation of the attachment of their fathers to me; each of 
whom having lived nearly forty years in my family. To each of my nephews, Wil- 
liam Augustine Washington, George Lewis, George Steptoe Washington, Bushrod 
Washington, and Samuel Washington, I give one of the swords, or couteaux, of 
which I may die possessed; and they are to choose in the order they are named. 
These swords are accompanied with an injunction not to unslieath them for the pur- 
pose of shedding blood, except it be for self-defence, or in defence of their country 

48 



190 

and its rights; and in the hitter case, to keep them unsheathed, and prefer faUing 
with them in their hands to the rehnquishment thereof. 

And now, having gone through these specific devises, with explanations for the 
more correct understanding of the meaning and design of them, I proceed to the 
distribution of the more important parts of my estate, in manner following : 

First. — To my nephew, Bushrod Washington, and his heirs, (partly in con- 
sideration of an intimation to his deceased father, while we were bachelors, and he 
had kindly undertaken to superintend my estate during my military services in the 
former war between Great Britain and France, that, if I should fall therein, Mount 
Vernon, then less extensive in domain than at present, should become his property,) 
I give and bequeath all that part thereof, which is comprehended within the fol- 
lowing limits, viz. Beginning at the ford of Dogue Run, near the Mill, and ex- 
tending along the road, and bounded thereby, as it now goes, and ever has gone, 
since my recollection of it, to the ford of Little Hunting Creek, at the Gum Spring, 
until it comes to a knoll opposite to an old road, which formerly passed through the 
lower field of Muddy-Hole Farm; at which, on the north side of said road, are three 
red or Spanish oaks, marked as a corner, and a stone placed; thence by a line of 
trees, to be marked rectangular, to the back line or outer boundary of the tract 
between Thompson Mason and myself; thence with that line easterly (now double 
ditching, with a post-and-rail fence thereon) to the run of Little Hunting Creek; 
thence with that run, which is the boundary between the lands of the late 
Humphrey Peake and me, to the tide-water of the said creek; thence by that 
water to Potomac River; thence with the river to the mouth of Dogue Creek; and 
thence with the said Dogue Creek to the place of beginning at the aforesaid ford; 
containing upwards of four thousand acres, be the same more or less, together with 
the mansion-house, and all other buildings and improvements thereon. 

Second. — In consideration of the consanguinity between them and my wife, being 
as nearly related to her as to myself, as on account of the affection I had for, and 



191 

tlie obligation I was under to their father wlien living-, who from his youth had 
attached himself to my person, and followed my fortunes through the vicissitudes of 
the late Revolution, afterwards devoting his time to the superintendence of my 
private concerns for many years, whilst my public employments rendered it imprac- 
ticable for me to do it myself, thereby affording me essential services, and always 
performing them in a manner the most filial and respectful; for these reasons, I say, 
I give and bequeath to George Fayette Washington, and Lawrence Augustine Wash- 
ington, and their heirs, my estate east of Little Hunting Creek, lying on the River 
Potomac, including the farm of three hundred and sixty acres, leased to Tobias Lear, 
as noticed before, and containing in the whole, by deed, two thousand and twenty- 
seven acres, be it more or less ; which said estate it is my will and desire should be 
equitably and advantageously divided between them, according to quantity, quality, 
and other circumstances, when the youngest shall have arrived at the age of twenty- 
one years, by three judicious and disinterested men; one to be chosen by each of 
the brothers, and the third by these two. In the mean time, if the termination of 
my wife's interest therein should have ceased, the profits arising therefrom are to be 
applied for their joint uses and benefit. 

Third. — And whereas it has always been my intention, since my expectation of 
having issue has ceased, to consider the grand-children of my wife in the same light 
as I do ray own relations, and to act a friendly part ])y them; more especially by the 
two whom we have raised from their earliest infancy, namely, Eleanor Parke Custis, 
and George Washington Parke Custis; and whereas the former of these hath lately 
intermarried with Lawrence Lewis, a son of my deceased sister, Betty Lewis, by 
which union the inducement to provide for them both has increased ; wherefore I 
give and bequeath to the said Lawrence Lewis and Eleanor Parke Lewis, his wife, 
and their heirs, the residue of my Mount Vernon estate, not already devised to my 
nephew, Bushrod Washington, comprehended within the following description, viz. 
All the land north of the road leading from the ford of Dogue Run, to the Gum 
Spring, as described in the devise of the other part of the tract to Bushrod Wash- 
ington, until it comes to the stone and three red or Spanish oaks on the knoll ; thence 



192 

with the rectangular line to tlie back line (between Mr. Mason and me); thence 
with that line westerly along the new double ditch to Dogue Run, by the tumbling 
dam of my mill; thence with the said run to the ford aforementioned. To which I 
add all the land I possess west of the said Dogue Run and Dogue Creek, bounded 
easterly and southerly thereby; together with the mill, distillery, and all other 
houses and improvements on the premises, making together about two thousand 
acres, be it more or less. 

Fourth. — Actuated by the principle already mentioned, I give and bequeath to 
George Washington Parke Custis, the grandson of my wife, and my ward, and to his 
heirs, the tract I hold on Four Mile Run, in the vicinity of Alexandria, containing one 
thousand two hundred acres, more or less, and my entire square. No. 21, in the city 
of Washington. 

Fifth.— All the rest and residue of my estate real and personal, not disposed of in 
manner aforesaid, in whatsoever consisting, wheresoever lying, and whensoever found, 
(a schedule of which, as far as is recollected, with a reasonable estimate of its value, is 
hereunto annexed,) I desire may be sold by my executors, at such times, in such man- 
ner, and on such credits, if an equal, valid, and satisfactory distribution of the specific 
property cannot be made without, as in their judgment shall be most conducive to the 
interest of the parties concerned ; and the moneys arising therefrom to be divided into 
twenty-three equal parts, and applied as follows, viz. To William Augustine Wash- 
ington, Elizabeth Spotswood, Jane Thornton, and the heirs of Ann Ashton, sons and 
daughters of my deceased brother, Augustine Washington, I give and bequeath four 
parts; that is, one part to each of them. To Fielding Lewis, George Lewis, Robert 
Lewis, Howell Lewis, and Betty Carter, sons and daughter of my deceased sister, 
Betty Lewis, I give and bequeath five other parts; one to each of them. To George 
Steptoe Washington, Lawrence Augustine Washington, Harriet Parks, and the heirs 
of Thornton Washington, sons and daughter of my deceased brother Samuel Wash- 
infton, I give and bequeath other four parts; one to each of them. To Corbin 
Washington, and the heirs of Jane Washington, son and daughter of my deceased 



193 , 

brother John Augustine Washington, I give and bequeath two parts; one to each of 
them. To Samuel Washington, Francis Ball, and Mildred Hammond, son and daugh- 
ter of my brotlier Charles Washington, I give and bequeath three parts; one to each 
of them. And to George Fayette Washington, Charles Augustine Washington, and 
Maria Washington, sons and daughter of my deceased nephew, George Augustine 
Washington, I give one other part, that is, to each a third of that part. To Elizabeth 
Parke Law, Martha Parke Peter, and Eleanor Parke Lewis, I give and bequeath 
three other parts; that is, a part to each of them. And to my nephews Bushrod 
Washington, and Lawrence Lewis, and to my ward, the grandson of my wife, I o-ivc 
and bequeath one other part; that is, a third thereof to each of them. ' And if it should 
so happen, that any of the persons whose names are here enumerated (unknown to 
me) should now be dead, or should die before me, that in either of these cases, the 
heirs of such deceased person shall, notwithstanding, derive all the benefits of the 
bequest, in the .same manner as if he or she was actually living at the time. And, by 
way of advice, I recommend it to my executors not to he precipitate in disposing of 
the landed property, (herein directed to be sold,) if from temporary causes the sale 
thereof should be dull; experience having fully evinced, that the price of land, espe- 
cially above the falls of the river, and on the western waters, has been progressively 
rising, and cannot be long checked in its increasing value. And I particularly recom- 
mend it to such of the legatees (under this clause of my will,) as can make it conve- 
nient, to take each a share of my stock in the Potomac Company, in preference to the 
amount of what it might sell for; being thoroughly convinced myself, that no uses to 
which the money can be applied, will be so productive as the tolls arising from this 
navigation when in full operation, (and thus, from the nature of things, it must be, ere 
long,) and more especially if that of the Shenandoah is added thereto. 

The family vault at Mount Vernon requiring repairs, and being improperly situated 
besides, I desire that a new one of brick, and upon a larger scale, may be built at the 
foot of what is commonly called the Vineyard Enclosure, on the ground which is 
marked out; in which my remains, with those of my deceased relations (now in the 
old vault), and such others of my family as may choose to be entombed there, may 

49 



, 194 

be deposited. And it is my express desire, that my corpse may be interred in a 
private manner, without parade or funeral oration. 

Lastly. — I constitute and appoint my dearly beloved wife, Martha Washington, 
my nephews, William Augustine Washington, Bushrod Washington, George Steptoe 
Washington, Samuel Washington, and Lawrence Lewis, and my ward, George 
Washington Parke Curtis (when he shall' arrive at the age of twenty-one years), 
executrix and executors of this my will and testament, in the construction of which it 
will be readily perceived, that no professional character has been consulted, or has 
had any agency in the draft; and that, although it has occupied many of my leisure 
hours to digest, and to throve' it into its present form, it may, notwithstanding, appear 
crude and incorrect; but, having endeavoured to be plain and explicit in all the 
devises, even at the expense of prolixity, perhaps of tautology, I hope and trust that 
no disputes will arise concerning them. But if, contrary to expectation, the case 
should be otherwise, from the want of legal expressions, or the usual technical terms, 
or because too much or too little has been said on any of the devises to be consonant 
with law, my will and direction expressly is, that all disputes (if unhappily any 
should arise) shall be decided by three impartial and intelligent men, known for their 
probity and good understanding; two to be chosen by the disputants, each having 
the choice of one, and the third by those two ; which three men, thus chosen, shall, 
unfettered by law or legal constructions, declare their sense of the testator's inten- 
tion ; and such decision is, to all intents and purposes, to be as binding on the parties 
as if it had been given in the Supreme Court of the United States. 

In witness of all and of each of the things herein contained, I 
have set my hand and seal, this ninth day of july, in the 
year one thousand seven hundred and ninety,* and of the 
Independence of the United States the twenty-fourth. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

' Tlic testator seems to have omitted the word " nine." 



A TRUE AND BEAUTIFUL PORTRAIT 



CHARACTEH OF GENEUAL WASHINGTON, 



LATE HONOURABLE GEORGE CANNING, 



PRIME MINISTER OF ENGLAND 



General Washington was, we believe, in his sixty-eiglith year. The height of 
his person was about six feet two inches ; his chest full, and his limbs, though rather 
slender, well shaped and muscular. His head was small, in which respect he resem- 
bled the make of a grfeat number of his countrymen. His eyes were of a very light 
grey colour ; and, in proportion to the length, of his face, his nose was long. Mr. 
Stewart, the eminent portrait painter, used to say, there were features in his face 
totally different from what he had ever observed in that of any other human being ; 
the sockets of his eyes, for instance, were larger than he had ever met with before, 
and the upper part of the nose broader. All his features, he observed, were indicative 
of the strongest passions, yet, like Socrates, his judgment and great self-command, 
have always made him appear a man of different character in the eyes of the world. 
He always spoke with great diffidence, and sometimes hesitated for a word, but it was 
always to find one particularly well calculated to express his meaning. His language ' 
was manly and expressive. At levee, his discourse with strangers turned principally 
upon the subject of America; and if they had been through any remarkable places, 
his conversation was free and particularly interesting, for he was intimately ac- 



196 

(luainted with every part of the country. He was much more open and free in his 
behaviour at the levee than in private, and in the company of ladies, still more so, 
than when solely with men. Few persons ever found themselves for tlie first time 
in the company of General Washington, without being impressed with a certain 
degree of veneration and awe; nor did those emotions subside on a closer acquaint- 
ance ; on the contrary, his person and deportment, were such, as rather tended to 
augment them. The whole range of history does not present to our view, a char- 
acter, upon which we can dwell with such entire and unmi.xed admiration. The long 
life of General Washmgton, is not stained hj a single blot. 

He was indeed a man of such rare endowments, and such fortunate temperament, 
that every action he performed, was alike exempted from the character of vice or 
weakness. Whatever he said, or did, or wrote, was stamped with a striking and 
peculiar propriety. All his qualities were so happily blended, and so nicely harmo- 
nized, that the result was a great and perfect whole; the powers of his mind, and the 
dispositions of his heart, were admirably suited to each other. It was the union of 
the most consummate prudence, with the most perfect moderation. His views, though 
larwe and liberal, were not extravagant; his virtues, though comprehensive and benefi- 
cent, were discriminating, judicious, and practical ; yet his character, though regular 
and uniform, possessed none of the littleness which may sometimes belong to those 
descriptions of men. It was formed a majestic pile, the eifect of which was not 
impaired, but improved by order and symmetry; there was nothing in it to dazzle by 
wildness, or surprise by eccentricity. It was a higher species of moral beauty ; it 
contained everything great and elevated, but it had no false and tinsel ornament; it 
was not the model cried i;p by fashion and circumstance; its excellence was adapted 
to the true and just moral taste, incapable of change from the varying accidents of ■ 
manners and opinions. 

General Washington is not the Idol of a day, but the Hero of ages! Placed in cir- 
cumstances of the mo.st trying difheulty at the beginning of the American contest, he 
accepted that situation which was ]n-e-cniincnt in danger and responsibility. His per- 



197 

severance overcame every obstacle, conciliated every opposition ; his genius supplied 
every resource. His enlarged views could plan, revise, and improve every branch of 
civil and military operation. He had the superior courage which can act, or forbear 
to act, as true policy dictates, careless of the reproaches of ignorance, either in power, 
or out of power. He knew how to conquer by waiting in spite of obloquy, for the 
moment of victory, and he merited true praise by despising unmerited censure. 

In the most arduous movements of the contest, his prudent firmness proved the 
salvation of the cause which he supported. His conduct was on all occasions guided 
by the most pure disinterestedness. Far superior to low and grovelling motives, he 
seemed even to be uninfluenced by that ambition which has justly been called, the 
instinct of great souls. He acted ever as if his country's welfare, and that alone, was 
the moving spring. His excellent mind needed not even the stimulus of ambition, or 
the prospect of fame. Glory was but a secondary consideration. He performed o-reat 
actions, he persevered in a course of laborious utility, with an equanimity that neither 
sought distinction, nor was flattered by it; his reward was in the consciousness of his 
rectitude, and in the success of his patriotic efforts. As his elevation to the chief 
power was the unbiassed choice of his countrymen, his exercise of it was agreeable to 
the purity of its origin; as he had neither solicited nor usurped dominion, he had 
neither to contend with rivals, nor the revenge of enemies. As his authority was 
undisputed, so it required no jealous precautions, no rigorous severity. His govern- 
ment was mild and gentle; it was beneficent and liberal; it was wise and just; his 
prudent administration, consolidated and enlarged the dominion of an infant republic. 

In voluntarily resigning the Magistracy which he had filled with such distinguished 
honour, he enjoyed the unequalled satisfaction of leaving to the state, he had contri- 
buted to establish, the fruits of his wisdom, and the example of his virtues. It is 
some consolation amidst the violence of ambition, and the criminal thirst of power, 
of which so many instances occur around us, to find a character whom it is honour- 
able to admire, and virtuous to imitate. A conqueror for the freedom of his country! 
a legislator for its security ! a magistrate for its happiness ! his glories were never 

50 



198 

sullied by those excesses into which the highest qualities are apt to degenerate. 
With the greatest virtues, he was exempt from the corresponding vices. He was a 
man in whom the elements seemed so blended, that " Nature might have stood up to 
all the world," and owned him as her work. His fame, bound to no country, will 
be confined to no age. 

The character of General Washington, which his contemporaries regret and 
admire, will be transmitted to posterity, and the memory of his virtues, Avhile patriot- 
ism and virtue are held sacred among men, will remain undiminished ! 

• Peace to the i\iejmory of a man of worth ! 



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